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Virtual Worlds
Special Issues
Empowering Health Education: Digital Transformation Frontiers for All
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Empowering Health Education: Digital Transformation Frontiers for All

A special issue of Virtual Worlds (ISSN 2813-2084).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2025) | Viewed by 2371

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Stathis Konstantinidis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2HA, UK
Interests: digital pedagogy; conversational agents; artificial intelligence in education; Internet of Things; immersive reality; co-creation methodologies of OER; content sharing; retrieval and repurposing; educational standards; virtual patients; web of data; semantic web; serious games; gamification and exergames
Prof. Dr. Panagiotis Bamidis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Medical Physics and Digital Innovation Lab, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: digital health; mHealth and management of chronic diseases and cancer; virtual reality; medical education technology; co-creation; living labs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Eleni Dafli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Medical Physics and Digital Innovation Lab, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: digital health; mHealth and management of chronic diseases and cancer; virtual reality; medical education technology; co-creation; living labs
Dr. Panagiotis Antoniou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Medical Physics and Digital Innovation Lab, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: digital health; mHealth and management of chronic diseases and cancer; virtual reality; medical education technology; co-creation; living labs

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The fifth International Conference on Medical Education Informatics (MEI2024) will take place from Monday 10th to Tuesday 11th of June 2024, in the premises of the Conference and Dissemination Center of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. This conference is composed of a number of keynote and invited lectures, invited panels, as well as short oral and poster presentations. Keynote speakers, invited experts, and dedicated panels, workshops, and symposia will focus on key issues in research and practice. This program will be complemented by poster presentations, providing a unique opportunity for interaction and debate around all conference themes. Conference participants will benefit from the co-located satellite events and project meetings that are scheduled in parallel (a number of EC-funded projects through Horizon Europe and the Erasmus+ programs).

The theme of this year’s conference is “Empowering Health Education: Digital Transformation Frontiers for All”. In an ever-changing digital world, health and medical education are constantly evolving. Disruptive technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence shape new challenges but also opportunities to empower health and medical Education through a constant digital transformation.

Please find more information at https://mei2024.org.

We welcome contributions from all conference presenters with an accepted abstract, but also from researchers that aim to shed light on the digital transformation frontiers to enhance health and medical education on topics aligned with Virtual Worlds aims and scope (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/virtualworlds/about.

Dr. Stathis Th. Konstantinidis
Prof. Dr. Panagiotis Bamidis
Dr. Eleni Dafli
Dr. Panagiotis Antoniou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Virtual Worlds is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • virtual reality
  • augmented reality
  • serious games
  • extended reality
  • medical education
  • health informatics
  • virtual patients

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Review

33 pages, 2089 KB  
Review
Virtual Reality in Speech Therapy Students’ Training: A Scoping Review
by Flavia Gentile, Mascha Wanke, Wolfgang Mueller and Evi Hochuli
Virtual Worlds 2025, 4(3), 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/virtualworlds4030037 - 21 Aug 2025
Viewed by 688
Abstract
Virtual Reality (VR) is a useful educational tool in healthcare, allowing students to practise and improve practical skills. In speech therapy (ST), the need to revise academic curricula to adapt them to university contexts and integrate them into advanced clinical practices has highlighted [...] Read more.
Virtual Reality (VR) is a useful educational tool in healthcare, allowing students to practise and improve practical skills. In speech therapy (ST), the need to revise academic curricula to adapt them to university contexts and integrate them into advanced clinical practices has highlighted the need to analyse the use of VR in this sector. The objective of this scoping review was to investigate whether research has considered using VR to support ST students’ training and highlight potential gaps in the literature. The study followed the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and was reported according to PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A protocol to conduct the current review was developed and registered on the Open Science Framework. The articles considered were retrieved from databases specialising in healthcare, computer science, and education, and were enhanced by results found with the help of AI-based tools. No constraints were applied and all study types were considered. Fourteen studies were included in the review and analysed under four core subjects: VR technology, ST context, training purposes, and main outcomes and assessment methods. The VR types identified in the studies were grouped into four categories, i.e., non-immersive VR (6/14, 42.9%), immersive VR (5/14, 35.7%), non-specified VR type (2/14, 14.3%), and semi-immersive VR (1/14, 7.1%). Most studies (5/14, 35.7%) focused on clinical skills acquisition, others addressed communication and interpersonal collaborative skills (3/14, 21.4%), while the remaining focused on person-centred care and awareness, clinical interviewing or reasoning skills, and performance knowledge (2/14 each, 14.3%). VR is still in its early stages in ST education. Some recent studies suggest VR supports students’ communication, interdisciplinary, and clinical skills. Although still limited in the context of ST education, the increasing affordability and ease of development of VR, along with its growing use in other healthcare fields, suggest that its underuse might be due to institutional barriers and lack of standardised frameworks. Overall, the findings suggest that VR offers promising support for experiential and skills-based learning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empowering Health Education: Digital Transformation Frontiers for All)
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17 pages, 2627 KB  
Review
360-Degree Videos in Healthcare: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends and Emerging Topics
by Maram A. Alammary, Lesley E. Halliday and Stathis Th. Konstantinidis
Virtual Worlds 2025, 4(3), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/virtualworlds4030029 - 23 Jun 2025
Viewed by 765
Abstract
This bibliometric analysis aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the use of 360-degree video in healthcare, identifying key research trends and emerging topics in this field. Data was sourced from the Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and PubMed, and analyses were [...] Read more.
This bibliometric analysis aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the use of 360-degree video in healthcare, identifying key research trends and emerging topics in this field. Data was sourced from the Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and PubMed, and analyses were performed using the Biblioshiny package. Network visualization was conducted using VOSviewer. A total of 272 studies on 360-degree video were included in the analysis. The number of publications has shown a consistent upward trend from 2009 to 2024. Most publications (n = 234) were articles, indicating a maturing field. Institutions in North America and Germany lead the list of top affiliations. Research areas reflect interdisciplinary use of 360-video in healthcare, led by computer science (20.2%), followed by education (14.3%), healthcare sciences (10.7%), psychology (10.3%), and nursing (8.1%), demonstrating broad applicability across sectors. Recent emerging topics, such as empathy, stress, and well-being, indicate a growing research interest in the holistic aspects of healthcare interventions, particularly the psychological and emotional dimensions. Additionally, the concept of “presence” has gained increasing attention, reflecting its psychological and emotional impact. The findings suggest that further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of interactive learning and user engagement in 360-degree video experiences. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Empowering Health Education: Digital Transformation Frontiers for All)
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