Reducing mental health stigmatisation among healthcare workers and students using a virtual reality protocol: the VIRTUS protocol, a randomised controlled trial.

The randomised design with an active control programme matched for format, duration and continuing medical education credits allows any between-group difference to be attributed to content addressing the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or non-binary and intersex (LGBTI) people rather than to attention or incentive effects. Stratified block randomisation protects against chance imbalance between arms on sex and age, two factors associated with physicians’ attitudes towards LGBTI patients. The use of validated, culturally adapted instruments and a 3-month follow-up enables reliable assessment of both immediate and sustained training effects.