Comparative Evaluation of AR-based, VR-based, and Traditional Basic Life Support Training

Basic life support (BLS) is crucial in the emergency response system as sudden cardiac arrest is still a major cause of death worldwide. In the majority of cases, cardiac arrest is witnessed out-of-hospital where execution of BLS including resuscitation through by-standers becomes indispensable. However, survival rates of cardiac arrest victims could significantly increase if people were more familiar with the BLS process. In this context, technology-enhanced BLS training approaches utilizing Augmented (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have been proposed in recent works. However, most of these approaches are not compliant with the medical BLS guidelines or focus only on specific steps of BLS training such as resuscitation. Furthermore, most of the existing training approaches do not focus on automated assessment to enhance training effectiveness through fine-grained real-time feedback. To overcome these issues, we present a novel AR- and VR-based training environment which supports a comprehensive BLS training compliant with the medical guidelines. Our training environment combines AR-NR-based BLS training with an interactive haptic manikin that supports automated assessment, real-time feedback, and debriefing in an integrated environment. We have conducted a usability evaluation where we analyze the training effectiveness and cognitive workload of BLS training based on our AR and VR environment against traditional BLS training. Results of the evaluation indicate that AR and VR technology have the potential to increase engagement in BLS training and reduce the cognitive workload compared to traditional training.