In what way are immersive technologies eligible to solve current problems in patient information and informed consent before elective surgery?

Abstract

Patient information and informed consent prior to a medical intervention has long been aneglected field in healthcare and despite efforts undertaken to better the current process,much improvement potential remains. Immersive technologies, like Virtual Reality (VR) andAugmented Reality (AR), are powerful emerging mediums which allow people to generate, consume, and interact in novel ways with information. Various applications of VR and AR in healthcare can be already found and both, the healthcare and the immersive technology sector, show promising global growth potential.The aim of this master thesis is to discuss current solutions for patient information and informed consent, identify major problems and as a consequence evaluate the eligibility of immersive technologies in this setting to introduce a novel standardized information procedure and thus, a possible improvement of currently practiced methods. To gain deeper insight into the clinical context, semi-structured interviews with five Austrian medical experts were conducted and the findings compared to the results of an extensive literature research. Based on the results, the authors are confident that immersive technologies are eligible to solve the identified problems in patient information and informed consent and that this emerging technology features interesting and valuable applications for the complex interaction between healthcare professionals and patients.