May 05, 2008
Structured Clinical Interview Training And Virtual Patients
Virtual Human Agent (VHA) technology has evolved to a point where researchers may begin developing mental health applications that make use of virtual reality patients. In an ongoing study from the University of Southern California of virtual patients (VP). Researchers have developed an approach that allows novice mental health clinicians to conduct an interview with a virtual character that emulates an adolescent male with conduct disorder. This study illustrates the ways in which a variety of core research components can facilitate the rapid development of mental health applications.
Effective interview skills are a core competency for psychiatry residents and developing psychotherapists. Although schools commonly make use of standardized patients to teach interview skills, the diversity of the scenarios standardized patients can characterize is limited by availability of human actors. There are also economic issues related to the investment of time and money needed to train standardized patients. Thus, using the Virtual Human Agent (VHA) technology, a different approach to developing mental health applications using virtual reality patients may be one answer to standardization.
Study
Objective structured clinical interview training using a virtual human patient.
Parsons TD, Kenny P, Ntuen CA, Pataki CS, Pato MT, Rizzo AA, St-George C, Sugar J.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2008;132:357-62.