Accepted for/Published in: JMIR XR and Spatial Computing (JMXR)
Date Submitted: Jan 16, 2024
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 16, 2024 - Mar 12, 2024
Date Accepted: Jul 15, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Immersive Technology Use in Pediatric Healthcare Enhanced by Accessible, Context-Specific Training: A Descriptive Feasibility Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Immersive technologies provide therapeutic adjuncts for pediatric care. However, accessibility and inadequate training limit implementation. Standardized instruction with no-cost software licensing may improve healthcare providers’ facility with immersive technologies.
Objective:
This retrospective review examined immersive technology utilization in pediatric healthcare. Immersive technologies included virtual reality (VR) and projectors.
Methods:
We developed immersive technology instructional guides for pediatric healthcare and tracked anonymized usage through monitoring software. The primary outcome explored utilization across sites with no-cost software licenses. The secondary outcome reported specific application types at a single site by sessions and minutes. Descriptive statistics analyzed the data.
Results:
Data were collected from 19 sites from January 2022 to June 2022. 32% of sites used 10 or more VR units. Of sites that had projectors, 50% used five or more. The mean and 25-75% range of minutes used per month of all sites combined was 2,199 (51-1,058) minutes. Secondary results indicate active VR (977 total sessions) and passive projector streaming (1,261 total sessions) were the most popular application types by session, while active projector (66,849 total minutes) and passive projector streaming (32,711 total minutes) were the most popular by minutes.
Conclusions:
Context-specific technological instruction coupled to no-cost licenses may increase access to immersive technology in pediatric healthcare settings, particularly among adult learners.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.