Virtual Reality Applications in Medicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic: PRISMA Systematic Review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the adoption rate of virtual reality in medicine has seen a massive rise. Many hospitals and medical universities rushed to implement virtual reality to remotely provide medical treatment or medical education and training. OBJECTIVE This systematic review aimed to describe the literature on virtual reality applications during the COVID-19 crisis to treat mental and physical health conditions and for medical education and training. METHODS A systematic search of the literature was made following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines. It was pre-registered in the International Platform of Registered Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols (INPLASY)— INPLASY202190108. The search databases were PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Medline. The search string was: [(“virtual reality”)] AND [(“COVID-19”)]. RESULTS N=44 studies met inclusion criteria during the period 2020 – 2021. CONCLUSIONS Findings show the benefit of virtual reality for treating several mental health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, including stress, anxiety, and depression, and for cognitive rehabilitation. Besides, VR was useful to promote physical exercise and for the management of chronic pain. As regards education and training, virtual reality resulted an effective learning tool during the COVID-19 pandemic in many medical areas such as nursing, pediatry,cardiology, and urology. The majority of the retrieved studies recruited young adults. Studies showed the usefulness of VR for the treatment of health problems and for medical education and training both in the format with high immersion (i.e., immersive VR) and in that with a low level of immersion (i.e., desktop VR). Various VR systems (i.e., PC-based, mobile, standalone) and contents (i.e., 360° videos and photos, virtual environments, VR games, embodied virtual agents) showed positive results. Finally, VR has been used successfully in both face-to-face and remote trials.