Authors

• MAHNAZ SAMADBEIK ¹
• DONYA YAAGHOBI ¹
• PEIVAND BASTANI ²
• SHAHABEDDIN ABHARI ³
• RITA REZAEE ⁴
• ALI GARAVAND ⁵

¹ Department of Health Information Technology, Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran

² Health Human Resources Research Center, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

³ School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

⁴ Quality Improvement in Clinical Education Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

⁵ School of Allied Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Virtual reality is a new method for trainingdifferent medical groups. Based on this technology, professionalsand students of various medical sciences can determine their levelof competence for medical treatment before any performance onthe patient. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify theapplications of virtual reality technology for training the medicalgroups.Methods: This is a scoping review study conducted in 2016.Articles were retrieved through the search of related keywords indatabases such as Pub Med, Scopus, Web of Sciences, Springer,and Google scholar. Then, after applying the entry criteria, 21papers were selected from a total of 1343. Data extraction was doneby a data collection form. The collected data were summarizedand reported using content analysis technique according to thestudy purpose.Results: The findings of the study indicated that 11 cases (48%)have used virtual education technology for laparoscopic surgerytraining. Using virtual reality has improved learning in 17 (74%)studies. A higher accuracy in medical practice by people trainedthrough VR has been reported in 20 (87%) studies.Conclusion: The results indicate that the application of virtualreality capabilities plays an important role in improving theperformance of different medical groups. According to the results,it can be suggested that virtual reality capabilities should be usedto train different medical groups based on their individual andcollective needs.Keywords: Virtual reality, Training, Clinical trials, Technology