A Decade of Research on the Use of Three-Dimensional Virtual Worlds in Health Care: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Background A three-dimensional virtual world (3DVW) is a computer-simulated electronic 3D virtual environment that users can explore, inhabit, communicate, and interact with via avatars, which are graphical representations of the users. Since the early 2000s, 3DVWs have emerged as a technology that has much to offer the health care sector. Objective The purpose of this study was to characterize different application areas of various 3DVWs in health and medical context and categorize them into meaningful categories. Methods This study employs a systematic literature review on the application areas of 3DVWs in health care. Our search resulted in 62 papers from five top-ranking scientific databases published from 1990 to 2013 that describe the use of 3DVWs for health care specific purposes. We noted a growth in the number of academic studies on the topic since 2006. Results We found a wide range of application areas for 3DVWs in health care and classified them into the following six categories: academic education, professional education, treatment, evaluation, lifestyle, and modeling. The education category, including professional and academic education, contains the largest number of papers (n=34), of which 23 are related to the academic education category and 11 to the professional education category. Nine papers are allocated to treatment category, and 8 papers have contents related to evaluation. In 4 of the papers, the authors used 3DVWs for modeling, and 3 papers targeted lifestyle purposes. The results indicate that most of the research to date has focused on education in health care. We also found that most studies were undertaken in just two countries, the United States and the United Kingdom. Conclusions 3D virtual worlds present several innovative ways to carry out a wide variety of health-related activities. The big picture of application areas of 3DVWs presented in this review could be of value and offer insights to both the health care community and researchers.

Systematic Review of Virtual Worlds applied in Education

“…The criteria's has its origin in the related work [Borges et al 2013;Ghanbarzadeh et al 2014;Krassmann et al 2014]. Thus, these criteria's are used as parameters to aid in the screening of publications.…”

“…The research conducted by Ghanbarzadeh et al (2014) described the development of a systematic review of literature on different applications of virtual worlds in health, specifically in the context of medicine. Analysis of the authors obtained 62 papers from five scientific databases relevant to health and were classified in six categories: academic and professional education, treatment, evaluation, lifestyle and modeling.…”

Integrating Virtual Worlds with Learning Management Systems: The MULTIS Approach

“…While the literature provides extensive documentation of virtual world use in education and training [6], typically only the actual virtual world activities are reported. There are some integration efforts, summarized in the next section, but few actual accounts or surveys of integration requirements with other educational systems, including LMS [7].…”

A multilevel longitudinal study of experiencing virtual presence in adolescence: the role of anxiety and openness to experience in the classroom

“…The significant advances in the capacities of the medium have promoted online communication and leisure interactivity such as the playing of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (Ghanbarzadeh, Ghapanchi, Blumenstein, & Talaei-Khoei, 2014). Furthermore, portals for online communication have been enhanced with high resolution technology that can render three-dimensional virtual worlds, often triggering experiences of presence (Riva, Botella, Légeron, & Optale, 2004).…”

“…It is the psychological state of presence that the individual feels present in one "place" while physically being in another (Steuer, 1992), partially due to the virtual nature of the internet experience being unnoticed and/or ignored (Lee & Nass, 2001). Importantly, the experience of presence has been linked to both beneficial and disadvantageous uses of the internet, such as online therapeutic applications (Ghanbarzadeh et al, 2014) and addictive internet behaviours (Stavropoulos et al, 2013). Therefore, understanding which factors contribute to presence is a critical issue in relation to optimising online health applications, as well as treating internet addiction.…”