Comprehensive Assessment of Physiological and Psychological Responses to Virtual Reality Experiences.

Human–computer interaction (HCI) is an interdisciplinary field by nature. For example, developing virtual reality (VR) applications is an interdisciplinary process, as these applications often aim to digitally represent objects and events drawn from the physical world, requiring domain experts to collaborate with experts in VR to ensure accuracy. VR in medicine has expanded rapidly in recent years, propelled by the emergence of affordable, user-friendly VR technologies and a growing body of clinical studies demonstrating the efficacy of VR-based interventions across diverse clinical settings. This article details a collaboration between technical and clinical professionals to develop VR environments to treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and moral injury in health care workers (HCWs). Our contribution consists of formative collaboration and design practices, but does not report patient outcomes, feasibility metrics, engagement, dropout, or long-term effects in this phase. Although such cross-disciplinary collaborations have benefits, they also raise challenges due to differences in areas of expertise, language/semantics, and communication norms between the two groups. These concerns are best addressed through a bridge, a person who can translate ideas between fields and help the team align expectations, terminology, and goals. A bridge may be a single member with experience in both areas, or a role collectively filled when all members make the effort to understand each other’s work practices. Throughout this article, we use “bridge” to mean a person who connects groups by translating terms, coordinating work, and maintaining a shared understanding. Here, we use an HCI–clinician collaboration on developing a VR environment for PTSD and moral injury in HCWs as a case study. Developing VR therapies requires both clinical knowledge of PTSD and moral injury treatment and technical skill in creating immersive virtual environments. This collaboration benefited from the experience of two members who served as bridges, acting as translators who connected clinical goals with technical design decisions. The principal investigator (PI) on the clinical side has had extensive experience developing prototypes of VR simulations, developing and implementing the treatment applications of VR, working in interdisciplinary collaborations in academia and industry, and direct clinical experience providing patient care. The PI on the HCI side had experience in clinical settings, in addition to previous collaborations with clinicians. In this article, we characterize three stages of the collaboration and describe four types of challenges the team faced and solutions they identified.