Immersive Mixed Reality Simulation to Evoke Empathy (Empathy)

This is a quantifiable study evaluating the ability of a mixed reality (MR), immersive simulation experience to evoke empathy in anesthesiology trainees. Quantitative methodologies will be employed using standardized questionnaires including the The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy for Health Professions Students, (HP-version). Trainees will assess their preliminary, baseline empathy using the Jefferson Scale and after the simulation and debrief, will reassess empathy scores, once again using the Jefferson Scale. A satisfaction survey to assess simulated patient embodiment as a valuable exercise and contributor to empathy education curriculum.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Educational Problems
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Mixed Reality (MR); Behavioral: Control

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 81
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Palo Alto, California, United States, 94303
      • Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Trainees or personnel working and/or volunteering at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford / Stanford Health Care facilities
• 18 years and older

Exclusion Criteria:

• a history of severe motion sickness
• currently have nausea
• have a history of seizures
• are uncomfortable wearing a ~7 pound weighted vest.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Mixed Reality Group; In the MR group, the simulation instructor will explain the scope of the simulation embodiment experience and equip a weighted vest on the participant as they are asked to lay on a hospital patient gurney, seated upright. The participant, who is wearing a weighted vest to simulate an anterior mediastinal mass, will be asked to be seated upright and will view various holograms including vitals monitors, hear hospital related sounds via the headset, and also see additional holographic assets including intravenous polls and a defibrillator as well as experience heat (simulating a fever) from heat lamps. The simulation instructor will play the role of a physician who is using good communication skills based on the Calgary-Cambridge Guide to review a scripted consent for a high risk biopsy under sedation that may require life saving interventions such as extracorporeal membranous oxygenation (ECMO).	Behavioral: Mixed Reality (MR); Mixed Reality simulation of medical crisis scenarios. MR headset - a device that the participants will wear over their head and eyes and will add holographic elements to a live view of workplace training scenario
Active Comparator: Control; In the control group, there will be no headset, no heat lamps, and no weighted vest and the participant will rely on their imagination to embody the teenager while lying in the simulation room bed while being consented for the same procedure as the MR group.	Behavioral: Control; Tradition simulation of medical crisis scenarios.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in self-reported empathy from before and after the simulation	Measured with Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy for physicians and other practicing health professionals (HP-Version). The survey contains 20 item with 7-point scale, 1 indicates strongly disagree and 7 indicates strongly agree (a higher number on the scale indicates more agreement).	baseline, immediately after the intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Evaluation of the CHARM system's usability	Measured by System Usability Scale (SUS). The scale has 10 items. Scores ranges from 1-5 (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree)	immediately after simulation
Evaluation of the CHARM system's ergonomics	Measured by the ISO Ergonomic scale. The scale has 6 items. Scores ranges from 1-5 (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree)	immediately after simulation
Satisfaction of Design Features of the Simulation	Measured by Simulation Design Scale. The simulation design scale consists of 20 items in total. In the first stage, in order to evaluate whether the items used in the simulation method were given in the best way for the participant, they were expressed as strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, strongly agree. The survey contains 20 item with 5-point scale, 1 indicates strongly disagree and 5 indicates strongly agree (a higher number on the scale indicates more agreement). In the second stage, there are statements that will determine the level of importance of the scale items for the participant, not important, partially important, undecided, important, very important. The survey contains 20 item with 5-point scale, 1 indicates not important and 5 indicates very important (a higher number on the scale indicates more important). In the evaluation phase, the scale score is calculated by dividing the total and the total of the sub-dimensions by the number of items.	immediately after the intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Stanford University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 24, 2025
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 8, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): October 8, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 1, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 1, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): April 8, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 21, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 17, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Virtual Reality
• Other Study ID Numbers: 75021

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No