The goal of this pilot implementation study is to evaluate the impact of a virtual reality (VR) intervention on implicit bias for resident physicians. The main question it aims to answer are: Does watching VR experience of two clinical encounters reduce implicit bias association test scores? Is the VR experience an acceptable intervention tool for reducing implicit bias? Researchers will compare weight-based VR experiences consisting of two observed clinical encounters to a neutral education VR encounter to see if our intervention significantly impacts implicit bias association scores. Participants will be asked 1. Complete Implicit Association test for weight-based bias pre-intervention and post-intervention (immediately, at one week, and one month after the intervention) to assess their implicit bias 2. Watch either experimental clinical encounter videos or neutral education video using a VR headset 3. Participants will also complete an abbreviated IAT related to views on compliance
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
52
Two 360- videos watched via a VR headset where the study subject will witness a positive physician encounter with a compliant obese patient and a negative encounter with a non-compliant non-obese patient
A neutral education video from the New England Journal of Medicine watched in a 360-theatre setting via a VR headset
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Implicit Association Test
Participants in both experimental and control arms will take four implicit association tests: one pre-VR to assess baseline, immediately post-VR, one-week, and one-month. Impact of VR experimental experience will be assessed for significant changes in IAT scores between the pre-VR test and the post-VR tests.
Time frame: From enrollment to one-month post-intervention
Resident Impression of Virtual Reality Implicit Bias Project
The acceptability of the use of virtual reality for implicit bias studies will be surveyed
Time frame: One-month post-VR
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