Trial reportBMC medical education2024
Can virtual reality technology be used for empathy education in medical students: a randomized case-control study.
Trial report in BMC medical education, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- A scoping review on the use of virtual patients for enhancing empathy in medical students.Medical education online · 2026Article
- A multi-regional survey of empathy and its associated factors among community pharmacists within a national pharmacy network in Japan.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Virtual Reality-Enhanced Training for Trauma-Informed Care Among Residential and Child Mental Health Professionals: Pre-Post Evaluation Study.JMIR medical education · 2026Article
- Big Ideas Soapbox: Top 3 proposals presented at Family Medicine Forum 2025.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2026Article
- Virtual patient simulation to enhance medical students' clinical communication and decision-making skills: a pilot study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Virtual reality for experiential learning: enhancing agitation management skills, confidence, and empathy in healthcare students.Medical education online · 2025Article
- Cultural empathy development through simulation-based education: a qualitative exploration of Saudi nursing students' and academics' experiences.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Review
- Predicting Empathy and Other Mental States During VR Sessions Using Sensor Data and Machine Learning.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEmpathy is an important factor in the doctor-patient relationship, but mental illness is more difficult to understand than other diseases. Besides traditional skills, virtual reality (VR) has been identified as a promising tool in empathy education. This study aimed to investigate the ability of empathy enhancement, the feasibility of depression education, and the changes in thoughts and attitudes in medical students through a single VR experience.
methodsWe recruited medical students and randomly assigned them to two groups based on their completed Interpersonal Response Index scores. Two sets of VR systems were provided; the intervention group experienced the daily life of the depressed medical student, while the control group experienced the general medical student scenario. The improvement of empathy was assessed using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professional Students (JSE-HPS), and the change of attitude was assessed through the Implicit Association Test. In addition, other questionnaires were used to evaluate the user experience of this VR system, and correlation analysis was conducted to examine the association between the use of VR and changes in the JSE and IAT scores.
resultsA total of 59 medical students were enrolled in this study. The intervention group showed a significant increase in the perspective-taking (pre: mean 5.817, SD 0.536; post: mean 5.947, SD 0.620; P = .03) and compassionate care (pre: mean 5.546, SD 0.581; post: mean 5.721, SD 0.629; P = .01) domains of the JSE score and a significant decrease in the standing in the patient's shoes (SP) domain (pre: mean 3.583, SD 1.253; post: mean 2.967, SD 1.252; P = .002). The Pearson correlation analysis found a significant positive correlation between the JSE score with immersion aspect (r = .308, P = .049) and presence aspect (r = .415, P = .01), and we also found a significant negative correlation between the IAT score and presence aspect (r=-.333, P = .04).
conclusionsThis study is the first randomized case-control study to investigate the effect of two different versions of VR on empathy development toward depression for medical students. Although the single VR experience was unable to induce a great improvement in empathy or attitude, the VR system could help medical students enhance their understanding of depressive disorders.
trial registrationThis trial was retrospectively registered in the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) (21/03/2024, ACTRN12624000297527). https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=386683&isReview=true .
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.