MedEdXR: Immersive virtual reality embedded in community-based medical education
Earlier this semester, St Andrews medical students experienced a bespoke virtual reality (VR) scenario simulating a general practice home visit for the first time. The virtual patient in this case was experiencing an exacerbation of their chronic lung condition.
This immersive session enabled students to engage with the simulation as if attending a community placement and observe the realistic process of history-taking and clinical decision-making in a person’s home environment. Within the VR experience, students were prompted to engage with embedded knowledge tests or given instructions to carry out a small task, such as preparing equipment to take with them on the home visit.
The School of Medicine’s Medical Education Extended Reality (MedEdXR) project team members (including Dr Veronica O’Carroll, Dr Rebecca Walmsley, Dr Xi-Ning Wang, Gary Barclay, Ian Gordon, and Dr Alun Hughes) brought their expertise in learning technology, simulation-based education, VR, learning design, and educational research together to develop this novel teaching tool.
“This has been an exciting initiative in development for the past two years, involving both staff in the medical school and members of the local community collaborating to create this resource,” said Dr O’Carroll.
Community-based medical education (CBME) is valued as a vital component of preparing medical students for practice, but it is often problematic to deliver due to placement capacity. VR has the potential to provide students with learning experiences that help them to understand community structures and health and social care needs in these settings.
Before introducing VR into teaching, the MedEdXR project team conducted a mixed-methods study to design a bespoke community medicine VR scenario, exploring its impact on engagement, presence, and perceptions amongst medical students and educators. The VR simulation began as a video script, initially prepared by a panel of clinical and non-clinical specialists within the faculty.
The text contained actions and dialogue for the performers and a suggestion for interactive tasks embedded within the experience. This document was reviewed by the local Fife Community Advisory Council (FCAC), consisting of members of the public, prior to filming. The School’s Learning Technology team created an immersive recording using a six-sensor, 360-degree camera (Insta360 Pro 2) to capture the whole environment. Clinical staff and local simulated patients served as actors.
Key findings from this mixed-methods study showed that medical educators and students valued VR’s immersive potential as a complementary tool for community-based medical education. Their experiences and perceptions highlighted that VR should be carefully designed to balance immersion and interactivity. They noted the potential to simulate more complex social scenarios to capitalise on the safe, formative environment VR provides.
Following the success of the study, the MedEdXR team is now using this research to inform the development of additional scenarios in conjunction with public and patient partners. They hope to improve both the sense of immersion among participants and educational outcomes for students.
In the interim, they are delighted to see this resource incorporated into the School’s curriculum, marking a major step forward in delivering innovative, community medicine-focused education. Their primary goal is to ensure St Andrews medical students gain authentic, practice-ready skills while addressing the challenges of limited placement capacity. Community-focused scenarios using VR and other related technologies have the potential to address placement capacity issues and complement the School’s existing simulation- and placement-based educational offerings.
The MedEdXR team would like to acknowledge the input of School of Medicine staff, FCAC members, and simulated patients involved in the design and creation of the VR GP Home visit. This work is financially supported by NHS Education for Scotland and School of Medicine internal funds.