Medical Training Lags in Developing Countries. Technology Can Change the Game.

MedPage Today May 5, 2025
Shreenik Kundu, MBBS, Robert Glatter, MD, Ranu S. Dhillon, MD, and Dan Poenaru, MD

Virtual and augmented reality and haptics can support skill development

Many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face critical shortages of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals, a challenge that could deepen with the recent cancellation of U.S. global health aid. Beyond just the immediate shortages, there are also constraints on training the next generation of clinicians, especially in rural and remote areas.

One of the main challenges in training health workers is teaching skills that require hands-on experience — including procedures like placing intubation — and handling emergencies such as cardiac arrests and life-threatening bleeding. In high-income countries, trainees learn these techniques in skills labs that use mannequins and other tools to simulate real-life experiences; then they perform them under...

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