Immersive technologies can be used to promote empathy for others and for future self. Cognitive empathy, or putting yourself in another's shoes, is enhanced through the perspective-taking capabilities of technologies like virtual reality.
Our lab uses immersive technologies in patient-facing as well as student-facing applications. We combine VR with haptic devices to create a full sense of embodiment and presence for a fully immersive experience.
Haptics at work
The addition of haptic technology to a VR application can enhance the sense of embodiment by adding tactile stimuli. Our team is working on incorporation of haptics into a virtual reality experience to simulate functional limitations due to arthritic conditions affecting the hands. We collaborate with healthcare providers to make the experience more authentic.
Supporting Shared Decision Making
Our RA Patient Project aims to serve as a patient education tool for people with rheumatoid arthritis, showing them what disease progression may be like under varying circumstances.
We conducted a survey of nearly 4000 individuals with rheumatologic diseases (mean age 63 years) to determine whether they would be willing to use virtual reality as an educational tool. The majority of participants (86%) were willing to use VR to manage their condition, regardless of prior experience using VR.
Educating Future Health Professionals
Our student-facing applications are intended to support empathy-development among our student pharmacists at Auburn University to help them empathize with challenges that patients face when carrying out their day-to-day activities. The current application, which we call EmpathyVR, simulates color blindness in one scenario and arthritis in other scenarios. The project was funded by an Auburn University AUX grant. Read all about it at the links below.
We first launched EmpathyVR in 2022 with a color blindness simulation. Students had to sort pills into pill boxes by color in VR, both with and without a color blindness filter.
In 2023, we implemented an arthritis simulation, pairing a VR headset with arthritis simulation gloves that restrict movement of the joints in the hands. Students were tasked with completing three activities that patients with arthritis may find difficult due to impaired joint mobility - making a cup of coffee, brushing their teeth, and sorting pills into a pill box.
What our first-year student pharmacists say when asked what they enjoy about the activity:
"The interactive nature of the activity. It was more effective than learning in a classroom."
"I enjoyed how the virtual reality truly put me into another setting, I also very much enjoyed feeling the limitation of movement in my hands. I felt that these two elements together created a great experience to give insight as to what it may be like to complete daily tasks with arthritis. I enjoyed getting a look into what it may be like in someone else's shoes."
"It allowed me to step in the shoes of somebody with arthritis and it gave me an appreciation for my lack of pain and ability to perform tasks that require fine motor skills to complete."
"I enjoyed stepping into the patient's shoes and gaining a better understanding of what its like to live with certain impairments. Although the VR and gloves can't possibly capture the entirety of what our patients endure on a daily basis; it did cause me to reflect on my life and it reminded me that my heath is something that shouldn't be taken for granted."
Credits:
Created with images by alfa27 - "Child with virtual reality headset and joystick playing video games" • Photocreo Bednarek - "Into virtual reality world. Man wearing goggle headset." • DC Studio - "Older patient using virtual reality glasses in nursing home" • amnaj - "Group of young Asian business people using virtual reality glasses during meeting testing virtual reality headset and exchange project ideas shared to improve the visual experience."