Journal article
A Decade of Research on the Use of Three-Dimensional Virtual Worlds in Health Care: A Systematic Literature Review
Journal of Medical Internet Research, Vol.16(2), e47
2014
Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs
Abstract
Background: A three-dimensional virtual world (3DVW) is a computer-simulated electronic 3D virtual environment that users can explore, inhabit, communicate, and interact with via avatars, which are graphical representations of the users. Since the early 2000s, 3DVWs have emerged as a technology that has much to offer the health care sector. Objective: The purpose of this study was to characterize different application areas of various 3DVWs in health and medical context and categorize them into meaningful categories. Methods: This study employs a systematic literature review on the application areas of 3DVWs in health care. Our search resulted in 62 papers from five top-ranking scientific databases published from 1990 to 2013 that describe the use of 3DVWs for health care specific purposes. We noted a growth in the number of academic studies on the topic since 2006. Results: We found a wide range of application areas for 3DVWs in health care and classified them into the following six categories: academic education, professional education, treatment, evaluation, lifestyle, and modeling. The education category, including professional and academic education, contains the largest number of papers (n=34), of which 23 are related to the academic education category and 11 to the professional education category. Nine papers are allocated to treatment category, and 8 papers have contents related to evaluation. In 4 of the papers, the authors used 3DVWs for modeling, and 3 papers targeted lifestyle purposes. The results indicate that most of the research to date has focused on education in health care. We also found that most studies were undertaken in just two countries, the United States and the United Kingdom. Conclusions: 3D virtual worlds present several innovative ways to carry out a wide variety of health-related activities. The big picture of application areas of 3DVWs presented in this review could be of value and offer insights to both the health care community and researchers.
Details
- Title
- A Decade of Research on the Use of Three-Dimensional Virtual Worlds in Health Care: A Systematic Literature Review
- Authors
- Reza Ghanbarzadeh (Author) - Griffith UniversityAmir Hossein Ghapanchi (Author) - Griffith UniversityMichael Blumenstein (Author) - Griffith UniversityAmir Talaei-Khoei (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts and Business
- Publication details
- Journal of Medical Internet Research, Vol.16(2), e47
- Publisher
- J M I R Publications, Inc.
- Date published
- 2014
- DOI
- 10.2196/jmir.3097
- ISSN
- 1438-8871
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2014 Reza Ghanbarzadeh, Amir Hossein Ghapanchi, Michael Blumenstein, Amir Talaei-Khoei. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 18.02.2014. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
- Organisation Unit
- Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99447752902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Health Care Sciences & Services
- Medical Informatics