Virtual Map
A virtual map of the BC Children's Hospital offering pre-procedural exposure.
PARTNER
Dr. A. Cooper
Dr. M. Morrison
Dr. M. Cassidy
BC Children's Hospital
The Digital Lab
Type of work
Digital Theraputics
technology
Overview
Playful Exploration Reduces Anxiety
For many pediatric patients, visiting a hospital can be a stressful experience where they are not only nervous about upcoming medical treatment, but additionally unaware of their environment. Unchecked, this anxiety can have short- and long-term negative effects such as healthcare avoidance. Education of the procedure has been shown to be an effective means of reducing pre-procedural anxiety. Currently, the standard of care for pre-procedural preparation is to provide patients with PDF documents that describe the upcoming procedure in text and images in addition to any consultation they have had with healthcare workers.
In partnership with clinical researchers and clinicians across the BC Children's Hospital, The Digital Lab has developed Virtual Map - offering a gamified opportunity for the patients to virtually visit the hospital. By offering an engaging and immersive medium for users to engage in the pre-procedural preparation process and being able to virtually visit the new environments of the hospital before they visit them in person, our goal is to reduce pre-procedural anxiety.
Research & Design
From Virtual to Reality
Surgery, cast removal, and MRI scans have all been identified as stressful for patients. While BC Children's Hospital does offer documentation for pre-procedural preparation to patients prior to procedures, for many children visiting the hospital will still feel foreign and intimidating. Virtual Map is a mobile game that allows users to select an avatar and navigate from their home to a virtual hospital with a similar appearance to BC Children's Hospital.
This tool is personalized by the child's healthcare team and allows them to navigate to rooms similar to the one they are planned to visit. Virtual Map also acts as a research tool, with research teams able to randomly assign the users to experience each room through narrated images, 360 video or virtual reality.
Potential Impact
Making the Unknown Feel Familiar
The Virtual Map is currently undergoing evaluation to assess the Impact of media fidelity and digital immersion on patient-reported experience and outcomes in pediatrics. While it is too early to speculate on final outcomes, early results suggest that those who are educated using virtual reality show a greater reduction in pre-procedural anxiety compared to those who have been received the educational content through narrated images or 360 video.
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