Virtual reality education on myalgic encephalomyelitis for medical students and healthcare professionals: a pilot study 2024 Corry et al

Abstract

Introduction

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a chronic condition which may be characterised by debilitating fatigue, post-exertional malaise, unrefreshing sleep, and cognitive difficulties. ME/CFS has significant negative impact on quality of life for those living with the condition. This may be exacerbated by a lack of knowledge within healthcare regarding the condition. Previous research has found that immersive virtual reality (VR) educational experiences within healthcare education can increase knowledge and empathy.

Methods
The present study employed a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design to investigate the impact of a short immersive VR educational experience on knowledge of ME/CFS and empathy for those living with the condition. The VR experience placed participants into a virtual scene which told real life stories of the experience of people living with ME/CFS and their families. 43 participants completed in this pilot study: 28 medical students and 15 primary care health professionals. Participants completed measures of knowledge of ME/CFS and empathy before and after engagement with the experience.

Results
A statistically significant increase was found for levels of knowledge (p < .001, d = 0.74) and empathy (p < .001, d = 1.56) from pre-VR experience levels to post-VR experience levels with a medium and large effect size, respectively. Further analysis revealed no statistically significant difference between baseline levels of knowledge of ME/CFS between healthcare professionals and medical students.

Discussion
The present study is the first to explore the use of this short immersive VR experience as an education tool within healthcare to increase knowledge of ME/CFS, and empathy for those living with the condition. Findings allude to the previously established lack of knowledge of ME/CFS within healthcare although promisingly the increases in knowledge and empathy found suggest that this immersive VR experience has potential to address this. Such changes found in this small-scale pilot study suggest that future research into the use of VR as an educational tool within this setting may be beneficial. Use of a control group, and larger sample size as well as investigation of retention of these changes may also enhance future research.

Open access, https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-024-05990-2

 

Sounds interesting. I wonder how much the difference is the VR or just the quality of the underlying teaching materials?

 

The only thing that immediately comes to mind is that it'll be much harder to be distracted from VR than it is from a video.

Healthcare professionals will be used to having multiple demands on their time and attention, and watching a video clip on a workaday computer might be the sort of thing they think they can do while finishing something else. I used to have the same trouble as a plate-spinning administrator/producer.

 

Hope4ME and @JoanNI have been the driving force behind this project

 

Yep. And even computer games tgat emphasise the strait-jacket of PEM, energy envelopes , fatuguability, feeling awful when upright a lot of the time and having all sorts of medical related obligations.

Combined with being baited into wasting energy explaining to someone because this time they infer they might change something so it could save issues longer term then realising they’ve been taught to ‘just let you talk’ - a tactic to deliberately waste a week of energy/heakth, the most evil of evil things I blame the Chalder snd Gerald’s videos for telling GPs to deceive patients

well there’s no other way of communicating the ratchet of what they’ve done is there - than basic maths, and a tool showing what its consequences add up to and how quickly they come and directly they are linked to what others do

in fact can’t such algorithms tweaked to experienced patients actually be the ‘testable models’ to show we aren’t talking nonsense on PEM etc snd how it operates?

why is no one doing this to give us our dignity? And proof etc