VIRTUAL MEDICAL MUSEUM:THE NEXT ERA OF A CONTEMPRARY MEDICAL MUSEUM Anupa Sivakumar, Joachim Perera, Sunil Pazhayanur Venkateswaran, Hasnain Zafar Baloch, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia BACKGROUND OBJECTIVES To make the teaching and learning resources of the medical museum accessible 24/7 to the students. This will allow them to learn in advance about a particular model of interest prior to their medical museum session. The Virtual Medical Museum (VMM) is to move a step forward from the learning museum and is an initiative by IMU Academics. This was an inevitable process due to the increasing digitization and the demand to make the resources of the medical museum accessible to our students at any place and time. The VMM has been developed by the medical Museum and e-Learning team to simulate a real Medical Museum at IMU using the latest virtual reality technology(Panotour) available today. Its features include labelled anatomical structures of museum models, pertinent clinical reasoning information of these structures, clinical case studies, interactive videos and quizzes. The VMM is currently linked to the IMU e-Learning portal (https://elearn.imu.edu.my/course/view.php?id=1745) allowing students to access the VMM at anytime from anywhere using their electronic gadgets via an internet connection. The VMM provides easy access of information to the students that enhances their learning activities. To promote and serve as a platform for spiral learning. To promote self-directed learning among students. To revisit and recall basic sciences and real life cases. To provide opportunities for self-assessment. METHODS RESULTS OF THE INNOVATION Usability testing conducted among 11 students from IMU. Questionnaire administered to obtain feedback on the usefulness, ease of use and satisfaction of the innovation. 31% of students agreed that this was an useful tool. 23% of students agreed that it was easy to use this tool. 34% of students agreed that they were satisfied with the tool. The open comments from the participants were also collected. The model of the human hand was chosen as a resource to be uploaded on the VMM. The anatomical structures pertinent to this hand model were labelled at different levels and pertinent clinical reasoning information about these structures were also included wherever necessary. Relevant clinical case studies and quizzes were prepared using Articulate Storyline TM software. Quizzes and interactive videos were also included as part of this innovation. Currently content regarding other models related to the Musculoskeletal and Reproductive system are being developed. DISCUSSION CONCLUSION Contemporary museums are much more than places devoted to the placement and the exhibition of collections. One of the keys to approach is the use of novel new technologies and novel interaction paradigms. 2 The integration of immersive visualization, natural interaction and multimedia content would also represent an ideal didactical and experiential tool to explore the deep relation occurring between art, medicine and science. 1 With the development of the VMM, we hope that it will be beneficial and an easy tool to use for students. Results of usability testing suggests that even though most students are satisfied with the interface, we need to make changes in the design. This includes adding search buttons, including more models, inserting demo videos and user guides and also inserting a zoom in and zoom out feature. This is work in progress and we hope all these features as part of the Virtual medical museum. REFERENCES 1.Alessandra Scucess, Marcello Carrozino, Chiara Evangelista, Massimo Begamasco. Virtual environments and interactive tools to communicate medical culture in small museums. Scientific research and Information technology,2(2);2012:77-90. 2.Marcello Carrozino, Massimo Bergamasco. Beyond virtual museums: Experiencing immersive virtual reality in virtual museums. Journal of Cultural heritage.11(4);2010:452-458.