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June 25, 2008
Dentistry Faculty in Ann Arbor News
The Ann Arbor News has printed a story about the Virtual Reality in Health event at the Duderstadt Center last week. Dr Mark Fitzgerald - who gave an excellent overview of the School of Dentistry's use of simulations to train dental students - is quoted:
Last fall, U-M's Dentistry school began training students with simulations using technology similar to the computer animation software used for Pixar's movies, said Mark Fitzgerald.It offers dental students the chance to work on memorizing sequences of teeth and to familiarize themselves with the task at hand before practicing on a mannequin or getting to work on a real patient, said the associate chair of the school's Cariology, Restorative Sciences and Endodontics department.
Trying out the 3-D disaster simulator last week, Fitzgerald praised the realism of the immersion technique.
"It'd beat the socks off of sitting in a chair and listening to someone talk about it,'' Fitzgerald said.
But the problem in integrating simulation technology is making sure it's cost effective - many dental simulators on the market cost upwards of $60,000 a piece, he said. The school is looking for options that would be far cheaper than that, he said.
Posted by markmac at June 25, 2008 11:36 AM