Persky S. (2020). A virtual home for the virtual clinical trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 22(1): e15582. doi: 10.2196/15582
In this viewpoint report, the author examines the potential benefits of the integration of virtual reality (VR) (simulated environments created by digital technology) into the virtual clinical trial (VCT) (remote trial conducted via Telehealth technology) to provide a virtual reality trial hub of assessment administration, data collection, and interaction between research participants and researchers. While both VR and VCT technologies have made significant advances in recent years, researchers have yet to realize the potential of VR as an augment to the VCT. A VR trial hub could offer interpersonal communication (e.g. participant check-ins with research staff), educational content (e.g. trial or intervention information), trial assessments (e.g. VR-based evaluations of cognitive function) and a standardized, controlled setting (e.g. uniform environments for physiological measurement). The digital nature of VR allows for unprecedented precision and standardization of trial environments between all participants. VR trial environments could introduce participants to an almost limitless array of uniform, realistic visual and auditory stimuli (with no risk of participant endangerment). Immersion in lifelike VR simulations generates behavioral data unique from data produced by any other technology (e.g. eye height, gait, movement patterns, and adherence and participation levels of each participant in each element of a remote trial). This perspective piece suggests that the integration of VR hubs into VCTs may offer significant clinical benefit through a collective, immersive VR trial hub for information dissemination, communication between participants and researchers, administration of assessments, generation of unique types of data, and precise consistency of trial elements between participants.