Biofabrication VR – The hospital of the future: A serious game for patient education

Opening early 2020 in Brisbane, QLD, Australia, the new Herston Biofabrication Institute will transform the way we provide healthcare by producing innovative personalised and automated treatments. Biofabrication uses a patient’s detailed 3D scanning information and specialised 3D modelling software, 3D printers and tissue engineering to create personalised health solutions. Applications of biofabrication include patient-specific implants, grafts, prosthetics, orthotics, and surgical and radiation therapy aids. The new Institute is a partnership between Metro North Hospital and Health Service (MNHHS) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT). It will host a series of research facilities, along with a patient interface area for medical consultations. An adjacent waiting room is to be fitted with virtual reality (VR) capabilities, to maximise the opportunity to enhance patient knowledge, reduce anxiety, and assist with decision-making. The QUT Biofabrication and Tissue Morphology (BTM) research group teamed up with a group of students to design a virtual reality serious game with the goal to facilitate the adoption of VR technologies in the public health space and to educate the general public about biofabrication technologies and biomaterials. The result of the participatory design and development process is a game aimed at being made available in the Herston Biofabrication Institute waiting room (Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital) to patients meeting their health professional, providing them with a better understanding of biofabrication platform technologies.