Virtual Reality Training Assists CDC Laboratory Safety

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), priority number one is to protect public health against disease threats across the nation and globally. Threats come in many forms, and at CDC, working with dangerous pathogens is routine. To ensure safe and effective operations, CDC provides its laboratorians with rigorous training that keeps them at the top of their game.

With recent innovations in immersive technology, CDC and Booz Allen saw an opportunity to push the agency’s training program into the future, advancing it in ways that would make it more consistent, personalized, and measurable, as well as more efficient and convenient to access.

Expertise in ensuring safe and effective laboratory operations is a critical foundation of public health response. At the national and global level, CDC works to ensure the best laboratory operations training for its workforce and collaborators to support its disease surveillance and response mission. 

For decades, CDC and global partners have relied on traditional, in-person training to keep their laboratory scientists  proficient in safety and quality. The approach has a strong success record, but, with many moving parts, it is resource intensive. Historically, it has required travel of trainers, physical classroom space, in-person instruction, and the cost of housing and staff support. To advance scalable training, CDC joined forces with Booz Allen to develop innovative training system solutions. 

A team of laboratory scientists, immersive software developers, and user-experience designers was assembled to build an immersive training simulation. Use of immersive technology allowed the development of a solution tailored to CDC’s unique training needs for global laboratory operations. The result is Virtual Laboratory, a virtual reality training environment that realistically simulates the conditions and experience of conducting mission-critical work in a CDC lab.  

In Virtual Laboratory’s digital environment, users can: 

• Learn and practice how to safely and hygienically handle sensitive and hazardous materials without putting themselves at risk
• Practice emergency response scenarios in a safe, easily repeatable way
• Receive valuable instruction without having to travel globally