Dr. Johnston Gives Pulse!! Presentations at the
Medicine Meets Virtual Reality Conference

Dr. Claudia L. Johnston, Vice President for Special Projects at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, delivered two presentations at the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) Conference in Long Beach, Calif. Feb. 8-9.
           
Dr. Johnston is principal investigator for Pulse!! The Virtual Clinical Learning Lab, a military research project exploring whether high-level medical learning can occur in virtual space.
           
Dr. Johnston’s first presentation gave an extensive overview of the Pulse!! project titled, “Solutions from the Future.” In her second presentation, she described how she formed the Pulse!! team of medical experts, educators, government officials and virtual-games industry entrepreneurs.

MMVR is a multidisciplinary forum for computer scientists and engineers, physicians and surgeons, medical educators and students, military medicine specialists, and biomedical futurists.
           
The Pulse!! learning platform employs state-of-the-art computer-game technologies to create a virtual environment within which users employ discrete medical knowledge and skills.
           
The project is of interest to military medical officials as a means of quickly training physicians and other medical personnel in new treatment methods to meet rapid changes in the nature and complexity of warfare injuries.
           
Congress so far has invested almost $10 million in the project. Pulse!! has received enthusiastic support from U.S. Rep.  Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi (27th Congressional District), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Readiness and Military Construction. Federal research funds have been appropriated to Pulse!! through the Office of Naval Research.
           

A&M-Corpus Christi has contracted commercial game developer BreakAway Ltd. of Hunt Valley, Md., to work with the University’s Office of Special Projects in producing a virtual environment that will simulate medical treatment in three-dimensional space with a level of visual fidelity never before attempted.