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The Use of Virtual Reality Learning on Transition Education in Adolescents with Congenital Heart Disease

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Abstract

Improvement in congenital heart disease (CHD) outcomes has created a growing population of adolescents and young adults with unique health needs that require thoughtful transition planning and eventual transfer of care to an adult provider. Often, poor health literacy and limited resources can lead to interrupted care, which places them at risk for adverse health-related consequences. In 2019, the Wisconsin Adult Congenital Heart Disease transition program partnered with Stanford Virtual Heart (SVH), a virtual reality (VR) platform, to allow young adult patients to learn about their CHD in a clinic-based setting. We completed a single-center pilot study to evaluate these patients’ experience and perceptions to using VR during their transition education. At an initial transition visit, we used an immediate post-VR experience survey, scored using Likert scales of 1–5 (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Twenty-two patients (13 males) between the ages of 16 and 19 participated. Lesions included pulmonary stenosis, Tetralogy of Fallot, atrial and ventricular septal defect, coarctation, aortic stenosis, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and patent ductus arteriosus. Likert averages were 4.7 for finding VR helped with understanding their heart lesion, 4.6 for finding VR helped with understanding their heart surgery, 4.7 for enjoying the VR heart simulation, and 4.6 for finding that it was a good use of time. This study demonstrates that adolescents enjoyed using SVH and found it helpful. Clinical implementation shows promise as a plausible adjunct tool for transition education.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the patients, families, and house staff personnel who participated in this study. In addition, we would like to thank Stanford University for allowing us to use the Stanford Virtual Heart in our study. Stanford Virtual Heart was produced by Lighthaus Inc. with support from The Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center at Stanford and OculusVR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8915 W. Connell Ct, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Victor Kieu, Christopher Sumski, Scott Cohen & Stephanie S. Handler

  2. Herma Heart Institute at Children’s Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Victor Kieu, Christopher Sumski, Scott Cohen, Emily Reinhardt & Stephanie S. Handler

  3. Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    David M. Axelrod

  4. Department of Medicine, Division of Adult Cardiovascular Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Scott Cohen

  5. Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, Nemours Children’s Health, Wilmington, Delaware, USA

    Victor Kieu

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  1. Victor Kieu
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  2. Christopher Sumski
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  4. Emily Reinhardt
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  5. David M. Axelrod
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  6. Stephanie S. Handler
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Victor Kieu, Christopher Sumski, Scott Cohen, Emily Reinhardt, David M. Axelrod, and Stephanie Handler. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Victor Kieu.

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Conflict of interest

David M. Axelrod is the Lead Medical Advisor at Lighthaus, Inc. and co-developer of The Stanford Virtual Heart (SVH). However, of note, SVH is not a commercial product as the software is shared free of charge for academic centers who wish to use it.

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Kieu, V., Sumski, C., Cohen, S. et al. The Use of Virtual Reality Learning on Transition Education in Adolescents with Congenital Heart Disease. Pediatr Cardiol 44, 1856–1860 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-023-03292-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-023-03292-w

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