JMIR XR and Spatial Computing (JMXR)

Augmented reality (AR) can provide risk-free training for medical trainees, yet little is known about which learner characteristics facilitate adoption or inform training design.

Cardiac arrest is a critical medical emergency that requires strict adherence to clinical guidelines to achieve optimal outcomes. Deviations from these guidelines, often due to task complexity, can adversely affect patient outcomes. Augmented reality (AR) offers a way to deliver role-specific, in-view guidance, but evidence on its perceived usability, user experience, and acceptability in cardiac arrest resuscitation remains limited.

Vaping among youth and young adults (YYAs) has become a significant public health issue, with increasing prevalence and associated health risks. Despite awareness of these risks, many YYAs struggle to quit due to complex social pressures, stress, and a lack of tailored interventions. Digital tools, including augmented reality (AR), offer an opportunity to address these challenges by creating engaging and personalized support systems.

Medical education still faces challenges in teaching complex human cardiac anatomy to a wide range of learners, especially in the subject of congenital heart defects. Traditional educational methods, such as cadaver dissection and the use of textbooks, still face some limitations, e.g, such as specimen availability and student comfort. The objective of this research is to employ newer technologies, like virtual reality (VR), to teach the anatomy of congenital heart defects (CHDs) of three-dimensional (3D) heart models from real CT-scan images, to offer a more profound learning experience for learners and mentors.

Background: Depression is a prevalent mental health condition affecting millions worldwide, while many individuals face significant barriers to accessing effective therapy. Metaverse has emerged as a promising platform for addressing these challenges. Its three-dimensional (3D) virtual environments allow users to engage through customizable avatars, supporting the elicitation of therapy-related emotions, an essential component of therapeutic interventions.

Extended reality (XR), encompassing virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), is increasingly used in neurorehabilitation to provide multisensory feedback and promote neural plasticity in sensorimotor networks.

Immersive virtual reality (VR) technology presents digital simulations that create the sense of an actual experience. VR simulations are persuasive enough to elicit physiological reactions that mirror real-world responses. Prior research suggests that fear responses and sensation seeking are inversely correlated, but that work largely relies on self-reported outcomes and hypothetical scenarios.

Stroke is a leading cause of disability, often accompanied by Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN), which severely impairs recovery. Traditional assessments like paper-pencil tests provide limited insights into behaviors and eye-hand coordination during real-world tasks. Advances in hand pose estimation and eye-tracking in combination with augmented reality (AR) offer potential for data-driven assessments of naturalistic interactions.

Chronic pain management in public health services often struggles with limited engagement, emotional burden, and medication use. XR shows promise in specialized settings, but evidence for co-design and integration into primary care remains limited.

Virtual reality (VR) is showing increasing promises in assessing, understanding and treating mental health difficulties. Virtual humans (VH) are a key aspect within many VR mental health applications. While VHs can play diverse roles and display varied characteristics, their design and influence have rarely been the primary focus of mental health research.

Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging technology that provides an immersive user experience and has the ability to distract patients from the negative or painful experiences commonly associated with medical procedures. Bone marrow biopsies are medical procedures where a needle is inserted into the bone and a syringe is used to withdraw the liquid bone marrow. They are performed to diagnose and monitor disorders affecting the blood, often as part of care for hematology and oncology patients.

The emergence of next-generation video see-through head-mounted displays (HMDs), such as the Apple Vision Pro (AVP), has generated considerable interest in the medical field. While preliminary studies highlight AVP’s potential, no controlled study has rigorously assessed its usability for precision-based medical tasks requiring fine motor control and real-world perception.