Manipal University ties up with MediSim VR to provide advanced training to MBBS students

Mumbai: After 25 years of being a key driver of medical education in Malaysia, Manipal University has further stepped up its game in a collaboration with MediSim VR, a med-tech startup incubated at the renowned Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and supported by Johnson & Johnson USA.

Manipal University’s MBBS curriculum is a blend of traditional and contemporary teaching and learning modalities like cadaveric dissection to virtual 3-D dissections in Anatomy. The degree has always paved the way for graduates to blend with ease into the clinical working life at hospitals.

Through this collaboration, Manipal University’s MBBS students will be exposed to virtual reality (VR) clinical training during years 3 to 5 of their MBBS using MediSim’s Virtual Reality Skill Training Simulation. This is a first-of-its-kind MedTech solution that was conceived by MediSim to address the needs of the medical industry at the grassroots level. This technology has been fully functioning at Medisim’s VR-based skill training laboratory in Pondicherry, India which also happens to be India’s first laboratory of such nature.

Professor Dr Jayakumar Gurusamy, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Manipal, said, “VR provides an inspiring and immersive clinical experience for the development of technical competencies, such as surgical skills for our students. Learning through practical experience by incorporating visual stimuli with MediSim VR’s virtual experience improves students’ interaction within the classroom and boosts knowledge retention with enhanced clarity in understanding.”

“We are very happy to be working with the Manipal group, which has been a longstanding pioneer in the field of medicine, said Co-founder and COO Dr.  Adith Chinnaswami, MediSim VR.  “Being a Surgeon and well aware of Manipal’s medical pedigree, I see this as the perfect partnership to launch the first such fully automated Virtual Reality Skill Lab in Malaysia and look forward to maintaining the high standards MUCM sets towards its students’ education right being part of the curriculum,” he added.

Manipal would be installing MediSim’s VR kiosks at her campus so that it is easily accessible to her MBBS students as part of their learning experience. “It complements the traditional rich clinical experience our students experience at the hospitals. Harvard Business review indicates a 230% improvement over traditional training methods and VR-trained participants are 20% faster and more accurate,” added Professor Dr Jayakumar.

The name Manipal has resonated with the Malaysian healthcare system for the past 70 years with thousands of medical doctors graduating from Manipal in India. Manipal University College Malaysia continues this fine tradition of quality medical education through her MBBS and BDS which have been fully-in-Malaysia degrees since 2021.