Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 8, 2024
Date Accepted: Jan 23, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Overcoming a Knowledge Gap of Healthcare Professionals: The Influence of Previous Experience on the (Non-)Adoption of VR in Medical Rehabilitation
ABSTRACT
Background:
The metaverse concept, gaining popularity since 2021, integrates technologies like virtual reality (VR) presenting novel opportunities for healthcare (HC). The use of VR technologies in HC, particularly in medical rehabilitation, has demonstrated effectiveness by enabling patient remobilization in virtual environments, offering real-time performance feedback, enhancing physical function and quality of life, and allowing patients to perform exercises autonomously. Nevertheless, integration of VR into routine rehabilitative practice is facing slow adoption due to concerns from HC professionals regarding data security and ethical considerations.
Objective:
This study seeks to explore how previous experience with VR technologies influences HC professionals' decisions to adopt or reject these technologies in medical rehabilitation.
Methods:
Using Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory, we conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with HC professionals from different rehabilitative fields in Germany. We grouped the interview participants regarding their innovativeness into VR experienced "innovators" and non-experienced "laggards". We apply qualitative content analysis techniques and categorize 26 adoption and rejection factors.
Results:
The identified 26 factors influence VR technology adoption and rejection. VR-experienced "innovators" showed different adoption patterns compared to non-experienced "laggards”, while factors of adoption hardly differed.
Conclusions:
Addressing unique needs of both groups is crucial for wider VR acceptance in HC. The study enhances understanding of technology adoption, offering insights for developing strategies to improve VR integration in medical rehabilitation.
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Copyright
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