Immersive Technologies in Healthcare Education

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Educating healthcare workers and patients using immersive technologies

• IRAS ID

  295487

• Contact name

  Ryan Mathew

• Contact email

  R.K.Mathew@leeds.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Leeds

• ISRCTN Number

  ISRCTN00000000

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  NCT00000000

• Duration of Study in the UK

  5 years, 0 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Immersive technologies are a collection of tools, sometimes grouped under the term eXtended Reality (XR), including enclosed 3D Virtual Reality (VR) environments through to digital projections that overlay the real-world to create “Augmented/Mixed Reality” (AR/MR) They have the potential to impact on several aspects of the patient pathway. Despite this potential, widespread adoption is currently limited by the lack of evidence to inform the use of these tools, including acceptability, feasibility and utility, and clinical effectiveness. This mixed methods evaluation project aims to inform the adoption of immersive technologies along the patient pathway by exploring two key research questions:

  Question 1: Does immersive technology improve healthcare workforce education and training?
  Question 2: What role does immersive technology play in patient education?

  To answer these questions, a range of methodologies with quantitative and qualitative data collection will be employed. Key stakeholder (patients, healthcare workers and medical students) interviews and focus group discussions will be conducted alongside feasibility experimental designs such as comparing different devices and tasks to inform larger study design and conduct, and where possible, powered effectiveness designs. This project aims to have broad inclusion criteria as we are interested to see what patient groups and clinical areas are most likely to benefit from these technologies. The primary aim of this project is to provide a robust evidence base for clinicians and policy makers to inform adoption of immersive technologies in healthcare. A key secondary aim is to provide useful information for the design of future multicentre evaluations and ongoing development and evaluation of these technologies.

• REC name

  North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  22/NW/0061

• Date of REC Opinion

  22 Mar 2022

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion