6th July 2021

NHS visits for the next phase of VR development

The City of Liverpool College’s Digital Academy welcomed NHS representatives to its state of the art motion capture suite this week, where students showcased the progress they have made to virtualise the radiotherapy process at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.

The visit marks the next pase of The City of Liverpool College’s partnership with international engineering enterprise Laing O’Rourke and The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, one of the country’s leading cancer centres. The partnership has been designed to inspire students with the digital technologies used to develop the brand-new cancer centre and promote the modern careers now available in the construction industry, using digital design skills learnt through games development.

As part of ‘Project Innovation’, students have been collaborating with the NHS to develop a virtualisation application for The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. Using The City of Liverpool College’s new motion capture suite, students are developing an app to support in alleviating patient anxiety.

The partnership provides students with experience and unique insight into the construction industry, as well as having the opportunity to provide support to the brand new The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.

Steph Doyle, Head of The City of Liverpool College Digital Academy, said:

“For our students to be given the chance to work with a multinational organisation such as Laing O’Rourke and the NHS to develop a truly innovative tool for The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is an opportunity like no other. It has been incredible to see our students using our new state of the art motion capture suite, to create such an important tool that will make a difference to so many people.

“Providing our students with real world experiences is vital to ensuring they are ready to hit the ground running when they enter the world of work and projects such as this are shining examples of the value that this experience provides both for our students and for the organisations we work with.”

Nicky Hutton, Advanced Practitioner Therapeutic Radiographer at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, said:

“The facilities at The City of Liverpool College are wonderful and the motion capture suite has allowed us to replicate The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre Building incredibly well. I’ve been blown away by the quality of the work the students have created. Their technical skills are excellent and we will shortly have a brilliant app that will be of massive benefit to our patients.

“We know that patients can feel anxious when they first come for treatment at the cancer centre and this app will enable patients to familiarise themselves with the space and the facilities, helping them to feel much more comfortable early on. I look forward to seeing where this project will take us and the future possibilities collaborating with the college.”

To find out more about about courses at our Digital Academy, please click here.