Can a short interactive communication scenario in virtual reality alter future clinician behaviour to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in General Practice?
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1
UCL, Medical School, United Kingdom
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2
Whittington Health, United Kingdom
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3
UCL, Laws, United Kingdom
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4
Heron's GP Practice, General Practice Group, United Kingdom
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5
Goldsmith's University, Computer Science, United Kingdom
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6
NHS England, United Kingdom
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7
Whittington Hospital, Antimicrobials Pharmacy and Microbiology Department, United Kingdom
Objectives
To discuss the possibility that a short interactive communication scenario in virtual reality might alter the future behaviour of a professional in a clinical consultation.
Rationale
Virtual Reality has been all over the news these days. However, few people truly understand virtual technology and more importantly, the implications of how virtual reality could revolutionise the way we interact with the world and each other. Is the use of virtual reality in training useful? Justified? One size fits all? Or just of the moment and sexy? We want to discuss this using our published work showcasing a complicated communications scenario for General Practitioners (GPs).
Background
Our studies explores the extent to which portable Immersive Virtual Reality Technology can help us gain an accurate understanding of the factors that influence a doctor’s response to an ethical dilemma. We focused on the relatively simple dilemma underlying tenacious calls for antibiotics given the threat posed by growing anti-bacterial resistance worldwide and heavy investment in antibiotic stewardship. Aside from exploring the potential of virtual reality technology as a training tool, the specific purposes of our study are twofold: first, to investigate whether medical doctors would take the virtual situation seriously which they did and second, whether experienced GPs would be more resistant to patient demands than the trainees which they were. A short video demonstrating the work can be seen here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Hs6NxtXB8 (1)
Focus of contributors approach
We have drawn together a team of experts from a number of fields to debate this issue. Can medical training benefit from using virtual reality? Is the scenario realistic enough to be rolled out nationally to provide training in this area? Will all those who undergo this training be able to show how they have put the lessons learned into the clinical consultation? The experts debating have backgrounds in virtual reality, general practice, medicines management, medical education and training, ethicists and philosophers. We would expect there to be a fair amount of discussion and possible disagreement as to the utility of using virtual reality to train medical professionals in having difficult clinical consultations where the needs of the patient apparent benefit may be overridden by the need to consider the harms to society.
Speaker biographies
Dr Sylvie Delacroix is a Reader in legal theory and ethics in UCL Laws. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge, followed by a one year post-doc in Trinity College, Cambridge. In 2010 she was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize to pursue her research on the intersection between law and ethics. She was the founding director of the UCL Centre for Ethics and Law. She is the principal investigator of a multi-disciplinary research project –“Picking up ethical challenges within the humdrum of professional practice: can 3D avatars help?” that relies on immersive virtual reality technology to gain a better understanding of ethical decisions in a professional context.
Dr Xueni Pan is a Lecturer in Virtual Reality at Goldsmiths, University of London and an honorary research fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London. She holds a PhD in virtual reality, and an MSc degree in computer graphics, both at UCL. Over the past ten years she developed a unique interdisciplinary research background with journal and conference publications in both virtual reality technology and social neuroscience.
Her work has been featured in the media, including BBC Horizon and the New Scientist magazine.
Dr Carmel Sher is a General Practitioner and Partner in the Heron Practice in Stoke Newington, London. She qualified from Nottingham University in 1993 and has attained membership of the Royal College of GPs, Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. She is currently the practice lead for medicines management and anticoagulation at the Heron Practice which has a registered population of 11500.
Dr Sophie Lumley graduated from Birmingham in 2014 with an MBChB and intercalation in Healthcare Ethics and Law. During her time at Birmingham she was President of the Medical Student society (MedSoc) and throughout her medical school years she was heavily involved in Medical Education; in teaching, examining, curriculum development and education research. She has just completed her academic foundation year 2 in Birmingham, and is now on a National Medical Directors Clinical Fellowship at NHS England in London.
Ai-Nee Lim is a Consultant Pharmacist in Antimicrobials at the Whittington Hospital. She graduated with a BPharm from The School of Pharmacy, University of London in 1999 and has an MSc in Infection Management for Pharmacists from Imperial College London. She is involved in the training for medical and pharmacy students from the University College London, and has been leading on the training and development of the hospital workforce in antimicrobial stewardship for over 10 years.
Facilitator Biography
Dr Caroline Fertleman has been a Consultant Paediatrician at the Whittington Hospital & an Honorary Senior Lecturer, UCL medical school for 10 years. She is the course co-director for the only iBSc in Paediatrics and Child Health in the UK and is the sub-dean for the Whittington Campus for UCL. Caroline is a widely sought after speaker and chair for educational meetings and conferences locally, nationally and internationally. She is the convenor of her college (RCPCH) education special interest group, a council member and fellow of the Academy of Medical Education and a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has also authored seven parenting books for the lay public on babies, toddlers and potty training and several textbooks including one which won the paediatric prize in the BMA book awards 2015.
References
1 The Responses of Medical General Practitioners to Unreasonable Patient Demand for Antibiotics - A Study of Medical Ethics Using Immersive Virtual Reality. Pan, X., M. Slater, A. Beacco, X. Navarro, D. Swapp, J. Hale, P.A.G. Forbes, C. Denvir, A.F.d.C. Hamilton, and S. Delacroix. Plos one. February 2016
Keywords:
virtual reality,
Communication,
training,
General practitioner,
Antibiotic prescribing,
Public Health,
antibiotic stewardship,
Immersive
Conference:
3rd UCL Centre for Behaviour Change Digital Health Conference 2017: Harnessing digital technology for behaviour change, London, United Kingdom, 22 Feb - 23 Feb, 2017.
Presentation Type:
Research abstract
Topic:
Digital Health
Citation:
Fertleman
C,
Delacroix
S,
Sher
C,
Pan
X,
Lumley
S and
Lim
A
(2017). Can a short interactive communication scenario in virtual reality alter future clinician behaviour to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in General Practice?.
Front. Public Health.
Conference Abstract:
3rd UCL Centre for Behaviour Change Digital Health Conference 2017: Harnessing digital technology for behaviour change.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FPUBH.2017.03.00061
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Received:
22 Feb 2017;
Published Online:
22 Feb 2017.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Caroline Fertleman, UCL, Medical School, London, United Kingdom, c.fertleman@ucl.ac.uk
Dr. Sylvie Delacroix, UCL, Laws, London, United Kingdom, s.delacroix@bham.ac.uk