Embodied Empathy; Virtual Reality and Experiencing Geriatrics
Embodied Empathy; Virtual Reality and Experiencing Geriatrics
The Embodied Empathy pilot study proposes to use VR technology to create original narratives
 of real life patients from their own perspectives for medical students to embody. Instead of
 using an animated avatar, researchers will use live-action first-person 220 degree video to
 capture these vignettes. In "Virtual Body Swap: A New Feasible Tool to Be Explored in Health
 and Education," Oliveria discusses the impact of using an actual person as an avatar as
 opposed to animation. "Many possibilities stem from the concept of body swapping. The
 relationship between individuals and their own bodies has implications on their ego and own
 personality. Feeling to be in another person's skin and controlling another body's movement,
 can facilitate the development of empathy, playing with one's ego and emotions. Such
 experiments could, for example, be used as a theme for discussion and behavioral changes
 related to issues such as racism, altruism, inclusion and anorexia, among others" (Oliveria,
 Bertrand, Lesur, Palomo, Demarzo, and Cebolla, 2016). Although the study will not focus on a
 true one-to-one body swap, as in BeAnotherLab's The Machine To Be Another, the assertion of a
 real person as an avatar is essential to our project.
The Embodied Empathy pilot study designed for first year medical students intends to bring
 baseline data, and a formal research study into the embodied VR and empathy training
 conversation. With very little data supported research happening in the field, there is an
 abundance of thought, and opinion concerning the potential of embodied VR by academics, the
 media, and the tech industry. The Embodied Empathy pilot study hopes to build the case for
 this kind of work as a viable method of experiential training to increase empathy and reduce
 bias with the implementation of validated scales, controlled data collection, and in depth
 research through a pilot study, because essentially, it is the study the field needs to move
 forward in our embodied VR work.

 We are Alfred, created by Carrie Shaw of Embodied Labs, is an embodied VR narrative project
 of an elderly man who has difficulty understanding his doctor's explanation of his diagnosis
 due to both vision and hearing loss. The VR user sees a visual spot comparable to that which
 keeps Alfred from fully seeing his doctor and the papers before him. The user also struggles
 to hear the diagnosis - an embodied loss of hearing. Alfred tries to complete a cognitive
 test and fails, not because he is not intellectually sound, but because he cannot hear or see
 what is happening in a meaningful way (Wanshel, 2016, Shaw). Similarly, Embodied Empathy will
 illuminate the patient's experience, but with the addition of sensorial input, and engaged
 movement, bringing to light the subtle and not so subtle barriers to patient-centered care.
 In We are Alfred, the VR user sits passively as they watch Alfred's story unfold in a 360
 degree virtual world.

 The University of New England has initiated a multi-year educational project that uses VR
 technology and software from Embodied Labs, focusing on older adult health, but they did not
 utilize validated scales for data collection or a control group among other limitations
 (Dyer, Swartzlander, Gugliucci, 2018). A noted difference between the Embodied Labs software,
 and the Embodied Empathy pilot study is that researchers also incorporate user interaction
 between the VR world and the real world through sensorial input - touch, smell, interacting
 with objects, and mimicking the body movements of the patient, whose point of view the
 students are embodying. Beyond these differences, researchers also hope to produce a pilot
 study on firmer ground that can be further built upon by ourselves and others in the field
 with validated scales, and formal research study practices.

 The Embodied Empathy pilot study will give medical students the opportunity to proverbially
 walk a mile in their patients' shoes. Allowing them to embody patients' stories, they will
 face their hardships and impairments to understand their perspectives and to honor the
 feeling of identifying with another and wanting to help from a place of deep understanding
 (Bertrand, Guegan, Robieux, McCall, and Zenasni, 2018). Embodied Empathy has the potential to
 impact patient care by highlighting movement patterns or lack of movement patterns,
 identifying states of being, detailing how the patient takes and receives information, being
 sensitive to the relationship of the patient to the space they occupy, as well as how they
 move through the world.

 Researchers hope the Embodied Empathy pilot study will have an impact on the first year
 medical student's understanding of what aging means to a body and a person's life with the
 hopes that the immersive, and embodied VR experience will inspire interest in the field of
 gerontology.

 The VR experience will make immediately palpable a sensorial experience of geriatric
 patients' daily lives (e.g., difficulty opening a pill bottle, difficulty arising from a
 sitting position, blurred vision due to glaucoma, decreased memory, depression, etc.),
 ultimately allowing users to look past patients' external circumstances to humanize and
 increase the quality of their care.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Generally healthy 1st year medical students

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  None