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VR and AR Dialysis Equipment Training: Practising Complex Procedures Before Patient Care
Relevant case studies
Author: Spark Team
VR and AR Dialysis Equipment Training: Practising Complex Procedures Before Patient Care
Dialysis equipment demonstrates one of the strongest use cases for immersive medical-device training. Users must understand a sequence of equipment preparation, connections, consumables, checks and responses while maintaining strict standards of clinical safety.
These are procedures in which familiarity matters. A learner who has encountered the sequence repeatedly before working with a patient can begin hands-on training with considerably more context than somebody seeing the equipment for the first time.
VR and AR provide two complementary approaches: VR for repeated rehearsal before the task and AR for contextual guidance around the real equipment.
Why Dialysis Training Benefits from Repetition
Learning a complex device is rarely a single event.
Personnel may initially receive formal training but later need refresher education. Agency or rotating staff may encounter equipment they use less frequently. Procedures may also need reinforcement when somebody has been away from a particular clinical environment.
VR allows the approved workflow to be practised on demand.
Fresenius Medical Care already uses VR within peritoneal dialysis education. Its stay•safe MyTraining VR enables users to learn and repeat treatment steps at their own pace and can also be used for refresher training.
What Could a Bespoke Dialysis VR Simulation Include?
A VR training application could reproduce a specific dialysis machine and associated clinical environment.
Depending on the equipment, procedure and intended user group, training could include:
pre-use inspection;
machine preparation;
consumable identification;
correct installation of disposable components;
connection sequences;
interface navigation;
parameter confirmation;
alarm identification;
responding to simulated abnormal conditions;
treatment completion and equipment shutdown.
Crucially, learners would not merely observe the sequence. They would perform it.
Guided Mode Versus Assessment Mode
Immersive training becomes more powerful when support can gradually be removed.
Stage One: Guided Learning
The system highlights the next component and explains the appropriate action.
Stage Two: Supported Practice
The learner performs the process with prompts available when required.
Stage Three: Independent Assessment
Prompts disappear. The system records actions, sequence, omissions and potentially completion time.
This progression helps distinguish between recognising a procedure and actually remembering how to perform it.
Introducing Simulated Equipment Alarms
Routine operation is only part of clinical competence.
Personnel also need to understand what to do when the equipment behaves unexpectedly.
VR can introduce simulated alarms deliberately. The trainee may be required to recognise the alert, inspect appropriate information and follow the approved response sequence.
A scenario can be repeated without creating a real clinical disruption or deliberately faulting a physical device.
AR Training Around the Real Dialysis Machine
Augmented Reality moves the same concept onto the physical device.
Fresenius Medical Care launched an AR learning application for acute kidney replacement therapy equipment in 2024, combining AR glasses with digital learning modules so nursing staff can learn around the equipment in the clinical environment. Its Ready4 multiFiltratePRO AR platform blends the physical environment with interactive virtual 3D content.
A bespoke AR implementation could similarly display approved training information against a specific device.
For example, the application could indicate:
which component is referenced by an SOP step;
where a consumable should be fitted;
which control requires attention;
how an assembly fits together;
which maintenance area should be inspected.
Helping Reduce Training Consumables
Physical equipment training can consume more than time.
Some procedures require disposable items or dedicated training stock. Repeated virtual practice allows at least part of the learning sequence to take place before those physical resources are used.
The goal should not be to eliminate practical clinical education. It is to ensure that valuable practical sessions concentrate on aspects that genuinely need the physical equipment.
Building Organisational Resilience
Immersive training can also make knowledge easier to distribute.
If only a small number of instructors are capable of demonstrating a specialist device, access to training can become constrained by their availability.
A bespoke application can capture an approved baseline procedure and make it available more consistently.
Expert trainers remain important, but less of their time needs to be spent repeatedly explaining introductory steps.
A Digital Training Layer Around Dialysis Technology
The opportunity is ultimately to build a digital learning layer around the equipment.
VR prepares the learner before contact with the device. Hands-on clinical education develops physical competence. AR provides approved information where appropriate. Refresher simulations help personnel maintain familiarity.
This creates a more continuous approach to competence than a single training session followed by occasional reference to a manual.
Discuss Bespoke Dialysis Equipment Training with Spark
Spark develops immersive applications specifically around each client's products and procedures. We do not supply a generic dialysis training package. If you manufacture renal technology or need to improve equipment-specific clinical training, contact Spark about a bespoke VR or AR solution.
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