TY - JOUR
T1 - Reporting Guideline for Therapeutic Immersive Virtual Reality Interventions
T2 - International eDelphi Study (INVIRTUE)
AU - Slatman, Syl
AU - Harvie, Daniel
AU - van der Heijden, Max
AU - Bulle, Loes
AU - Dejaco, Beate
AU - van Goor, Harry
AU - Groenveld, Tjitske Diederike
AU - van de Hoef, Peter Alexander
AU - Kragting, Maaike
AU - Ostelo, Raymond
AU - Spiegel, Brennan
AU - Staal, J. Bart
AU - Trost, Zina
AU - Ummels, Darcy
AU - Knoop, Jesper
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by ZonMw (case number: 10270032021502). The funder had no role in the design, organization, and execution of the study. The members of the INVIRTUE Expert Panel are Reinoud Achterkamp, Corinne Ammann, Sara Arlati, Jane Aspell, Nancy Baker, Lina Barei\u0161yt\u0117, Aislinn Bergin, Sylvie Bernaerts, Paul Best, Chris Bevan, Inge Blauw, Iris Brunner, L.B., B\u0142a\u017Cej Cie\u015Blik, Davide Clemente, Nigel Cowan, Tom van Daele, B.D., Denzel Drop, Alexander Elser, Maximilian Friehs, Linda Garms, Andrew Goodsell, T.D.G., Ineke van der Ham, D.H., Lieke Heesink, Ren\u00E9e van den Heuvel, Sander van de Hoef, Alexandre Hudon, Marian Hurmuz, Stephanie Jansen, Hendrik Knoche, J.K., Marileen Kouijzer, Janienke Lier, Lukas Lorentz, Alexandre Luc, Erin Macintyre, Todd Maddox, Thomas Matheve, Ryan McConnell, Abele Michela, Lynn Nakad, Daniel Perez, Susan Persky, Ivan Phelan, Jennefer Pouwels, Federica Ram\u00EDrez, Aurora Ruiz-Rodriguez, Aniek Siezenga, Nathan Skidmore, Karin Slegers, Ivan Steenstra, Vincent Stirler, Jordan Tsigarides, D.U., Ilse Verveer, Harald Vonkeman, Marjan de Vries, and Steven Watson.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 SAGE Publications.. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
PY - 2025/1/1
Y1 - 2025/1/1
N2 - With the rising adoption of virtual reality (VR) in health care, research publications on the topic are increasing rapidly. Guidance on reporting VR interventions is limited, which risks misinterpretation of findings, inappropriate data synthesis in reviews and meta-analyses, and reduced reproducibility. This could also result in possible misuse of VR interventions and might hinder further implementation in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to develop a reporting guideline for therapeutic, immersive VR interventions using head-mounted displays in scientific publications. To reach this aim, we intended to achieve expert consensus on key items and categories for reporting these interventions. We conducted a three-round, modified, online Delphi study with a validation meeting to develop a VR intervention reporting guideline. Participants were international experts in therapeutic VR research, working as academic or industrial researchers. Convenience, purposive, and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants. Consensus was defined a priori as =75% agreement on each reporting item and category. Of the 280 invited experts, 61 participants (22%) completed all three rounds of this Delphi study. Participants (32 females [52%]) had an average of 6 years’ experience with VR research and diverse backgrounds in VR research settings and disciplines. The final consensus-based VR intervention reporting guideline consists of 16 reporting items divided into six categories (i.e., theory, content, deployment, development, safety, and context). The INVIRTUE intervention reporting guideline provides a framework for describing therapeutic VR interventions. Using this tool may enhance the uniformity and completeness of VR intervention reporting and support study replicability and scientific progress. The reporting guideline will also facilitate efficient empirical comparison across existing VR interventions and ultimately contribute to the appropriate use and effective implementation of therapeutic VR in clinical practice.
AB - With the rising adoption of virtual reality (VR) in health care, research publications on the topic are increasing rapidly. Guidance on reporting VR interventions is limited, which risks misinterpretation of findings, inappropriate data synthesis in reviews and meta-analyses, and reduced reproducibility. This could also result in possible misuse of VR interventions and might hinder further implementation in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to develop a reporting guideline for therapeutic, immersive VR interventions using head-mounted displays in scientific publications. To reach this aim, we intended to achieve expert consensus on key items and categories for reporting these interventions. We conducted a three-round, modified, online Delphi study with a validation meeting to develop a VR intervention reporting guideline. Participants were international experts in therapeutic VR research, working as academic or industrial researchers. Convenience, purposive, and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants. Consensus was defined a priori as =75% agreement on each reporting item and category. Of the 280 invited experts, 61 participants (22%) completed all three rounds of this Delphi study. Participants (32 females [52%]) had an average of 6 years’ experience with VR research and diverse backgrounds in VR research settings and disciplines. The final consensus-based VR intervention reporting guideline consists of 16 reporting items divided into six categories (i.e., theory, content, deployment, development, safety, and context). The INVIRTUE intervention reporting guideline provides a framework for describing therapeutic VR interventions. Using this tool may enhance the uniformity and completeness of VR intervention reporting and support study replicability and scientific progress. The reporting guideline will also facilitate efficient empirical comparison across existing VR interventions and ultimately contribute to the appropriate use and effective implementation of therapeutic VR in clinical practice.
KW - Delphi study
KW - health care
KW - intervention reporting guideline
KW - virtual reality
U2 - 10.1177/29941520251404744
DO - 10.1177/29941520251404744
M3 - Article
VL - 2
JO - Journal of Medical Extended Reality
JF - Journal of Medical Extended Reality
IS - 1
ER -