TY - GEN
T1 - Parkinson's disease simulation in virtual reality for empathy training in medical education
AU - Li, Yi Joy
AU - Ducleroir, Cody
AU - Stollman, Tyler Ian
AU - Wood, Elena
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 IEEE.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Introducing empathy for patients with debilitating diseases to medical students has always been a challenge in medical education, especially during the pre-clinical years. Since the most recent decade, a downward trend in medical students' empathy levels has been observed. With the rapid evolution of technologies, it is possible to use advanced gaming devices as tools to improve teaching efficacy, enhance students' understanding of a specific disease and influence their prosocial behavior towards patients. Studies suggest that virtual reality (VR) game applications are effective in education due to their immersive interaction, fully controllable virtual environment, and the feeling of presence and embodiment. The current study proposes a VR gaming application to enhance medical students' empathy level for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). By engaging students in the simulated daily life of patients with PD from their perspective, the study aims to help medical students to have hands-on experience of the disease and thus to facilitate their understanding of the symptoms and the patients' experiences. In-game data and pre- and post- measurements are designed for assessment and analysis. By combining the expertise of the human-computer interaction field and the medical field, the application embeds professional and accurate medical knowledge with trending VR techniques and interactive content to promote empathy.
AB - Introducing empathy for patients with debilitating diseases to medical students has always been a challenge in medical education, especially during the pre-clinical years. Since the most recent decade, a downward trend in medical students' empathy levels has been observed. With the rapid evolution of technologies, it is possible to use advanced gaming devices as tools to improve teaching efficacy, enhance students' understanding of a specific disease and influence their prosocial behavior towards patients. Studies suggest that virtual reality (VR) game applications are effective in education due to their immersive interaction, fully controllable virtual environment, and the feeling of presence and embodiment. The current study proposes a VR gaming application to enhance medical students' empathy level for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). By engaging students in the simulated daily life of patients with PD from their perspective, the study aims to help medical students to have hands-on experience of the disease and thus to facilitate their understanding of the symptoms and the patients' experiences. In-game data and pre- and post- measurements are designed for assessment and analysis. By combining the expertise of the human-computer interaction field and the medical field, the application embeds professional and accurate medical knowledge with trending VR techniques and interactive content to promote empathy.
KW - Empirical studies in HCI
KW - Human-centered computing
KW - Human-computer interaction (HCI)
KW - Interaction paradigms
KW - Virtual reality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105970102&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85105970102&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/VRW52623.2021.00016
DO - 10.1109/VRW52623.2021.00016
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85105970102
T3 - Proceedings - 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops, VRW 2021
SP - 56
EP - 59
BT - Proceedings - 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops, VRW 2021
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops, VRW 2021
Y2 - 27 March 2021 through 3 April 2021
ER -