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This Virtual patients have been used since the 1990's in pharmacy education for teaching and assessment of clinical and communication skills. Although their use is still limited, they allow students' engagement in true-to-life situations in a controllable environment. This paper describes an interactive application to assist in the academic training and assessment of Pharmaceutical Sciences students. Virtual humans play the role of patients and communicate with the student by speech and by facial and body language. The application comprises two usage modes: (i) the training mode, used autonomously by the student, gives detailed information about his performance and indicates places where he may find additional information, and (ii) the assessment mode which is used by the teacher to evaluate the student's performance. The process used to feed case-scenarios in the application does not require informatics skills because it resorts to an easy-to-use graphical interface. A BackOffice Web application was implemented to allow the creation of new self-medication situations and the collection of data about students' performance. The application was tested by a restricted group of experts whose overall opinion was quite positive about the usefulness of the application as a tool to improve students' as well as professionals' communication skills.

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Introduction: Improving adherence to antidiabetic medication is crucial, resulting in improved health outcomes, cost reduction, and minimization of waste. A lack of underlying theory in existing interventions may explain the limited success in sustaining behavior change. This paper describes the development of a theory and evidence-based complex intervention to improve adherence to oral antidiabetics in older people via a software prototype with an anthropomorphic virtual assistant. Methods: The Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) was used to develop a theoretical understanding of the change process, corresponding to the first phase of the Medical Research Council Framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions. At the BCW core is a model of human behavior (COM-B), which posits that human behavior (B) results from the interaction between capabilities (C), opportunities (O), and motivation (M). Literature-derived medication adherence determinants were mapped onto COM-B components. Then, intervention functions (IFs) were selected employing the APEASE criteria. Finally, standardized behavior change techniques (BCTs) were chosen based on their suitability and their effectiveness on medication adherence trials. The prototype was developed for android devices; its core was implemented in Unity3D, using a female 3D virtual assistant, named Vitória. Results: Two COM-B components were identified as main targets for behavior change—psychological capability and reflective motivation; these were linked with four IFs—education, persuasion, enablement, and environmental restructuring. Eleven BCTs were, in turn, linked with the IFs. An example of a BCT is “problem solving”; it requires users to pinpoint factors influencing non-adherence and subsequently offers strategies to achieve the desired behavior. BCTs were operationalized into the dialogues with Vitória and into supplementary software features. Vitória communicates with users verbally and non-verbally, expressing emotions. Input options consist of buttons or recording values, such as medication taken. Conclusion: The present approach enabled us to derive the most appropriate BCTs for our intervention. The use of an explicit bundle of BCTs, often overlooked in interventions promoting medication adherence, is expected to maximize effectiveness and facilitates replication. The first prototype is being refined with users and health professionals’ contributions. Future work includes subjecting the prototype to usability tests and a feasibility trial.

The virtual recreation of a physical three dimensional (3D) exhibition or museum allows a visitor to navigate in this virtual scenario in a way closer to reality. This issue is particularly relevant when the museum building is by itself a piece of art, as it is often the case. In this paper, the use of virtual 3D models in the domain of cultural diffusion is analysed, considering the common aspects of its application either for collections of museum's or for buildings and artifacts deteriorated or destroyed along the time. A wide range of applications are presented to exemplify the different requirements and techniques that can be considered in this domain. Techniques to create 3D models are reviewed as they are the base to generate a virtual environment and special attention is given to applications devoted to the development of 3D virtual museum exhibitions.