Under the title "From Vision to Reality", an international conference took place on 4 February 2026 at the Faculty of Education of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, which was the culmination of a three-year VReduMED project implemented by an international consortium of ten partner organisations from universities, research and educational institutions and innovation centres from the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary. The project focused on developing and validating the use of virtual reality (VR) in health and care education.
The programme included workshops with demonstrations of VR scenarios developed within the project: cardiopulmonary resuscitation of a pupil in a classroom, cardiopulmonary resuscitation of a child at a swimming pool, and simulation of critical situations in a hospital room. In addition, a VR application for teaching anatomy and a demonstration of creating simple VR programs were presented.
The conference also focused on mapping examples of good practice, a MedTech development roadmap, a care education forum, and a forthcoming methodological guide to provide practical support for educators when introducing VR into the classroom.
It was repeatedly stated that VR technologies have significant potential to increase learner motivation, promote safe skills training, and link theory to practice. The conference concluded by highlighting the importance of continued collaboration, networking, and integrating VR tools into the curriculum and the preparation of future teachers and health professionals.
Why was this project implemented at the Faculty of Education? Thematically and in terms of content, it builds on the previous VReduNET initiative, whose network of collaboration, experience, and outputs VReduMED built on, and in which the Faculty of Education was also involved. At the time of submitting the project, the Faculty was also preparing a study programme in Teaching of Professional Subjects, including a specialisation in Teaching of Professional Health Subjects, prepared in cooperation with the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences.
A recording of the conference will be made available on the project website vredumed.eu.
