• The Roles of Virtual Reality in Medical Education During the COVID-19 Crisis: A comprehensive review of qualitative studies
  • Maryam Jafari,1,*
    1. Student Research Committee, Anzali International Medical Campus, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan, Iran


  • Introduction: Since the last days of 2019, the novel coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) had been affected many aspects of human lives. Medical education was one of the sides that faced major changes while in-person classes shifted to virtual sessions during this pandemic to keep a safe distance to decrease students' interactions; so many types of distance learning, assessment, and virtual teaching methods are being proposed in this case. One of the novel educational tools which used increased is virtual reality (VR) technology in universities and hospitals for training students but it's not very common to use in comparison with video or online classes. Therefore, the present study is designed to determine the role of VR, its benefits, and obstacles, in medical education during the COVID-19 crisis.
  • Methods: The present comprehensive review was conducted through the electrical databases including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of science by searching with the keywords including "Covid-19", "Medical education" and "Virtual Reality" from 2019 to August 2022 in English. Qualitative studies that investigated the effects of VR on students' learning quality, the advantages, and disadvantages of VR in medical education, and the role of VR in undergraduate medical education theoretical and clinical training were the inclusion criteria. On the other hand, review articles, quantitative studies, and studies that only investigated the role of VR in a specialized field and VR in assessment medical education were excluded from the present review.
  • Results: Totally, 165 studies were found and according to the exclusion criteria; finally, 4 related articles were reviewed. During the Covid-19 pandemic, various virtual teaching and learning methods were increased in use, but most of the existing platforms were mostly suitable for teaching theoretical issues and could not be used for courses that require practical or clinical training. At this time, VR technology in medical education helped to teach these lessons more effectively. By reviewing the studies during this period and according to the results of all the studies, the use of VR was evaluated positively, even some people considered it more suitable than traditional classes, but the majority preferred the use of this technology along with face-to-face and clinical training. Students found this type of training useful for clinical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Among the other advantages mentioned by the students were easy access to training and no time limit for the classes, as well as no limit on the number of classes and not missing the training due to reasons such as being away from the professors. On the other hand, this technology has made it possible to interact with professors and other students. Another important point that can be mentioned is that students from all over the world can experience special and diverse cases with this technology, which increases the level of scientific literacy of students. Reducing the costs of creating different classes in different places is another advantage of VR in medical education that students from faraway areas can participate in classes and have the same level of education without being limited by location. Besides the positive points of this technology, some students have considered it difficult to access online classes and use this technology due to the lack of a suitable platform and sufficient facilities. Another noteworthy point is that due to the newness of this technology, there are many 360° videos of training courses available, but interactive courses are not available enough for students, and we need equipment and construction for these courses that need the passing of time.
  • Conclusion: In the last two decades, education has moved towards virtual platforms, but since 2019, due to the change in the teaching process and the distribution of classes, especially the spread of Covid-19, the platform and facilities of virtual education have increased significantly especially in medical education, as a result of this review, VR was able to maintain the quality of education and make it satisfactory and effective for the medical student. According to the results of the review, it seems to increase the use of this technology after Covid-19 and can be more effective in medical education if it adds to traditional medical education. However, more studies are needed to clear gray areas of the impact of VR in medical education.
  • Keywords: Keywords: COVDI-19, Virtual Reality, Medical Education