A Digital Deep Dive into XR Technology: Developing a local training programme to increase awareness of emerging healthcare XR technologies amongst healthcare professionals (Preprint)

Abstract

Currently, demands on healthcare services can greatly outweigh capacity. Multifactorial causative factors present great challenges, forcing the NHS to increase efficiency and adaptivity. Concurrently, digital advancements are excelling and long-term plans for NHS sustainability are focusing more than ever before on the use of technological interventions to benefit patients. Specifically, integration of Extended Reality (XR) technology has become an important focus of healthcare research in recent years. What is lacking, however, is insight into how the digital literacy of healthcare workforces is being developed and how these front-line staff members are being embedded into design processes to create digital interventions which are useful and useable in practice. At Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, a Digital Futures Research Lab has been developed with support from HEE, representing one of the first immersive digital technologies research spaces embedded within the NHS. From here came the development of a ‘Digital Deep Dive’ training programme for local clinical teams, supporting them to recognise the possibilities of digital healthcare technologies and evolve ideas for potential bespoke digital solutions appropriate to their own patient groups.

This paper aims to evaluate the feedback collected from a series of Digital Deep Dive pilot sessions to inform future directions for the development of this programme.

Voluntary pilot sessions were held for local clinical staff of varying occupations and experience. Participants were invited to complete an anonymous post-session QR feedback form collecting quantitative and qualitative data. This data was subsequently analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

21 completed questionnaires were analysed. Overall, the sessions were positively received: all participants reported increased awareness of the potential for digital healthcare innovation after taking part and most found the session useful and relevant to their clinical careers. Participants greatly valued the sessions being grounded in a context relevant to their own local clinical practice with opportunities to interact with the technology through the lens of local use cases.

We have successfully developed a training initiative providing contextually relevant XR technology awareness training to healthcare professionals of all abilities. Despite the growing pace of digital healthcare innovation, we recognised a knowledge gap in our local workforce regarding the potential of XR technologies within healthcare, as well as the presence of digital scepticism and patient-focused concerns. We responded by developing a training session grounded in the vital concept of digital co-creation; working with staff and service users to develop bespoke solutions integrated within patient pathways. This “bottom up” approach to educating staff groups in digital technology we believe will nurture digitally literate healthcare workforces within our local community who have the knowledge, skills and motivation to embrace transformative technology in the improvement of patient care.