Virtual Reality and Gaming Technology in Clinical Research: Past Trends and Future Prospects
Author(s)
Bevan A1, Baltezegar M2, Saragoussi D1
1Evidera, London, UK, 2Evidera, Wilmington, NC, USA
Presentation Documents
OBJECTIVES: Digital therapeutics (DTx) is a category of regulated software designed to improve health outcomes via the delivery of evidence-based behavioral or physical therapy to treat or prevent disease. Virtual reality (VR) and video games (VG) represent new modalities with the potential to increase patient engagement for the delivery of DTx. This research aims to characterize how these technologies have been studied. METHODS: Clinicaltrials.gov was searched for studies containing “(video game OR gaming OR game OR virtual reality AND NOT board OR ball)” registered up to and including 03-Jun-2021. Technology type (VR or VG) was determined based on study title, intervention and outcome. 3,041 studies were returned, of which 1,398 studies were excluded primarily due to inability to determine technology type. RESULTS: 1,643 studies were analyzed (VR=1,000 [60.1%], VG=643 [30.9%]) of which 67.3% were registered in the last 5 years. 82.3% of studies were non-industry and non-government funded. In terms of study design, 94.1% of studies were interventional and the most common interventional model was the randomized, parallel groups design (60.1% [VR 61.1%, VG 59.7%]). Most studies investigated the treatment effects (47.3% [VR 52.9%, VG 38.7%]), followed by 11% of the overall sample investigating preventative effects (VR 5.3%, VG 19.9%). The median sample size across all studies was n=57 (IQR=30-100). CONCLUSION: Most (>70%) of the clinical research on VR and VG has been small interventional (<100 subjects) studies investigating treatment effects of these technologies. These findings point to a paucity of large studies (≥1000 subjects) on these technologies (<2.3%). DTx could be considered well suited to decentralized (DcT) study approaches, which could enable larger, more robust trials. The ability to apply such approaches to study VR and VG presents an exciting opportunity to advance the development these technologies in real-world settings.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2021-11, ISPOR Europe 2021, Copenhagen, Denmark
Value in Health, Volume 24, Issue 12, S2 (December 2021)
Code
POSA288
Topic
Medical Technologies
Topic Subcategory
Digital Health, Medical Devices
Disease
Multiple Diseases