Innovation in Education and Healthcare: The Role of Virtual Reality and Immersive Technologies

Immersive technologies—virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR)—represent a paradigm shift in healthcare training and clinical practice. In recent years, scientific evidence has shown that these technologies significantly improve the acquisition of clinical knowledge and skills, reduce training times, increase patient safety, and optimise operational costs.

This Special Issue invites researchers, clinical educators, and healthcare professionals to explore the transformative potential of immersive reality in two key areas: undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare education, and clinical intervention and rehabilitation. Today, healthcare and innovation in education are undergoing substantial change due to new technologies and their increasingly significant impact on the world of education and healthcare. This change is demanded by students, teachers and even patients who can benefit from this technological advancement.

The Special Issue seeks to consolidate evidence on how innovative immersive technologies improve both educational processes and clinical care. Contributions addressing the following topics are welcome:

• Immersive health education: Surgical and procedural training (simulation of complex interventions), nursing and nursing assistant training, human anatomy education through 3D visualisation, and training in emergency protocols and rarely accessible clinical scenarios. This also includes the use of virtual patient applications to train mental health practitioners.

• Clinical applications and rehabilitation: Neurological rehabilitation (stroke, spinal cord injuries), vestibular and balance therapy, chronic pain management through distraction and motor retraining, cognitive therapy and mental health (PTSD, anxiety, therapeutic exposure), preoperative patient education and patient empowerment in decision-making.

• Innovative perspectives: Integration of wearable technologies and real-time biometric data, collaborative and interprofessional learning through shared environments, low-cost solutions and remote access for resource-limited contexts, objective assessment of competencies and real-time feedback.

This Special Issue takes an inclusive approach that validates both rigorous quantitative evidence and innovative perspectives supported by data. The following are considered:

• Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies with group comparisons.
• Pilot studies with clear methodology and promising preliminary results.
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the effectiveness of immersive technologies.
• Expert perspectives and conceptual frameworks that explain how to integrate these technologies into real educational and clinical contexts.
• Methodological quality, clarity of the research question, and rigour in data collection and analysis are fundamental criteria.

Expected Impact
Immersive technologies offer unprecedented opportunities: they allow safe and repeated practice without risk to real patients, replicate complex or rare clinical scenarios, provide instant and personalised feedback, and standardise the learning experience, improving equity in training. This Special Issue aims to be a reference point for educators, researchers, and healthcare managers who are designing the future of training and clinical care.