A wide range of services are provided by the Immersive Virtual Environment Testing Area (IVETA) and its staff including, scientific consultation, technological consultation and support, data collection, study administration, data preparation and analysis, and arranging necessary scientific materials. During this reporting year, five Social and Behavioral Research Branch-initiated research projects, and two projects initiated within the wider NIH have been served by the IVETA team. These include: - A project that investigates uncertainty in patient-physician encounters involving prostate cancer treatment decisions (PI: Han): Coding and analysis of virtual reality and physiological data - A project to assess the influence of patient emotion on reactions to obesity-related genomic information in clinical encounters (PI: Persky): Coding and analysis of virtual reality data - Administration of a virtual reality-based test of participant attention in conjunction with a larger study on brain structure and function of children with ADHD (PI: Shaw): Data collection, management and coding - A study assessing the influence of patient race/ethnicity and socio-economic status on physician decision-making related to personalized medicine (PI: Bonham): Scientific and technological consultation, data collection, data coding and management - A similar clinical personalized medicine study in a nursing context (PIs: Jenkins and Calzone): Scientific and technical consultation, planning and procurement - A project studying care giving processes in the context of genetic diseases and conditions (PI: Koehly): Physiological measurement tool consultation, training, technological evaluation, and procurement - A study investigating the influence of patient race and visit context on physicians' medical decision-making (PIs: Jackson and Choi): Scientific and technological consultation, planning and procurement We have also played a more minor role in supporting data analysis in several other projects and analyses. In addition to directly serving the research needs of the Social and Behavioral Research Branch and other NIH colleagues, the IVETA team also conducts research and assessments to expand its own capabilities. During this reporting year the IVETA team has conducted a pilot study that aims to assess the feasibility and added value of including physiological assessments of participant reaction to immersive virtual clinical simulations. The team has also prepared a study to assess the feasibility, utility, and added value of a tool that conducts automated assessment of participant emotion.
| Persky, Susan; Goldring, Megan R; Turner, Sara A et al. (2018) Validity of assessing child feeding with virtual reality. Appetite 123:201-207 |
| Persky, Susan (2011) Application of virtual reality methods to obesity prevention and management research. J Diabetes Sci Technol 5:333-9 |
| Persky, Susan (2011) Employing immersive virtual environments for innovative experiments in health care communication. Patient Educ Couns 82:313-7 |
