Trauma care in 2032

QUT’s School of Creative Practice has visualised the future of trauma care in a new film, ‘The Future Journey of a Trauma Patient’. Commissioned by the Jamieson Trauma Institute (JTI) at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, the film uses groundbreaking virtual production techniques to bring a 2032 trauma scenario to life.

The team integrated an actor into digital virtual environments to tell the story of an elderly man who is critically injured in a car accident on a remote road in Goondiwindi. In the trauma ward of the future, data visualisation, remote robotics, biofabrication and virtual care combine to give him the best possible chance of survival.

In a nod to the smart cars of the not-too-distant future, the driver’s ute calls 000 after he rolls it on a lonely stretch of road. The drama then details how scans at Goondiwindi Hospital are viewed by a trauma team in Brisbane, who virtually assist the local doctors to stabilise the patient. Scans are also sent to a biofabrication team in Brisbane to start work on printing bone implants for his shattered leg. ‘Nurse navigators’ communicate with the patient’s family to provide updates on his progress.

The film uses groundbreaking virtual production techniques to bring a 2032 trauma scenario to life.

Directed by Sorin Oancea and Joe Carter, lecturers in film and animation at QUT’s School of Creative Practice, the project brought together a team of researchers, animation and film students, and acting students who portrayed the medical staff through motion capture. Professional actor Errol R J Morrison was employed to play the trauma patient.

“QUT is one of only a handful of universities in the world with a virtual production pipeline which includes full-body 3D scanning technology, LED wall virtual production and motion capture systems to create high-quality outcomes in a cost-effective manner,” Carter said.

“The Jamieson Trauma Institute researchers, led by QUT Adjunct Professor Michael Schuetz, were looking at how to capture live foreground action (the trauma patient) in an animated environment that changes as the trauma patient undergoes their journey through the healthcare system.

“The film will be used by the Institute to present its vision for the future of trauma care and will be made freely available on its website to healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, trauma rehab teams, medical facility designers, medical students and others) in Queensland, across Australia and internationally.

“From our point of view it has also served to demonstrate the growing capacity of QUT to utilise virtual production techniques as a way to produce visually and aurally striking content in a unique and cost-effective way.

“The end result is a film that enriches communication [and] increases focus, empathy and impact,” Carter added.

Michael Handy, Assistant Nursing Director of Trauma and Orthopaedics at Royal Brisbane Hospital and a JTI consultant, said the film would play a vital role in summarising current practices and those expected to be the norm within the next 10 years.

“‘The Future Journey of a Trauma Patient’ will give people an understanding of the complexities of what goes on from when the trauma occurs right through the process of treatment, recovery and communication with all involved,” Handy said.

The full film can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/507069746.