Mixed-Realities Playkit to help children undertake an MRI scan

Cardboard MRI Scanner. Image (c) Dubit Ltd.

An interdisciplinary team that included academics in design and health, along with radiographers at Sheffield Children's NHS Trust set about working with the digital studio, Dubit to produce a playkit to help children aged 4-10-years-old prepare for an MRI scan without a general anaesthetic. The initial R&D project funded by Innovate UK and led by MMGC member Dylan Yamada-Rice, a Senior Lecturer in Immersive Storytelling in the School of Digital Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University, produced a mixed realities playkit to help children prepare for different elements of the MRI experience. These are (1) physical play to learn about an MRI scanner, (2) augmented reality play to learn about the job of a radiographer, and (3) virtual reality play to explore the journey of having an MRI scan from entering the hospital to completion. Children were included throughout the research project, as co-designers and testers of the play kit. Follow-on funding from the University of Sheffield and NHIR CypMedTech to conduct research with NHS patients has highlighted the multiple ways in which it helps children relax and feel prepared.

The playkit recently featured on the BBC’s Operation Ouch

The playkit recently featured on the BBC’s Operation Ouch Series 11, episode 10. See it in action on BBC iPlayer here (18 mins in): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001c96n/operation-ouch-series-11-10-its-a-lung-slide

Further details of the project can be found here: https://dylanyamadarice.com/RESEARCH-VR-Mixed-Realities-Play-Kit-to-Prepare-Under-10s-for-an-MRI