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Enrolling by Invitation

NCT Number: NCT07283523

Virtual Reality to Combat Weight-Based Implicit Bias: BWH Pilot Study

The goal of this pilot implementation study is to evaluate the impact of a virtual reality (VR) intervention on implicit bias for resident physicians. The main question it aims to answer are:

Does watching VR experience of two clinical encounters reduce implicit bias association test scores? Is the VR experience an acceptable intervention tool for reducing implicit bias?

Researchers will compare weight-based VR experiences consisting of two observed clinical encounters to a neutral education VR encounter to see if our intervention significantly impacts implicit bias association scores.

Participants will be asked

1. Complete Implicit Association test for weight-based bias pre-intervention and post-intervention (immediately, at one week, and one month after the intervention) to assess their implicit bias 2. Watch either experimental clinical encounter videos or neutral education video using a VR headset 3. Participants will also complete an abbreviated IAT related to views on compliance

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Key information

Conditions

Implicit Bias Behavior Bias, Implicit Implicit Association Test Prejudice Social Behavior

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, United States

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Resident physicians associated with Brigham and Women's Hospital
  • Resident physicians providing informed consent to participate

Treatment and study plan

360 Video on a Virtual Reality Headset

Behavioral

Two 360- videos watched via a VR headset where the study subject will witness a positive physician encounter with a compliant obese patient and a negative encounter with a non-compliant non-obese patient

360-Control Video

Behavioral

A neutral education video from the New England Journal of Medicine watched in a 360-theatre setting via a VR headset

Primary outcomes

  1. Implicit Association Test

    Time frame: From enrollment to one-month post-intervention

    Participants in both experimental and control arms will take four implicit association tests: one pre-VR to assess baseline, immediately post-VR, one-week, and one-month. Impact of VR experimental experience will be assessed for significant changes in IAT scores between the pre-VR test and the post-VR tests.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Resident Impression of Virtual Reality Implicit Bias Project

    Time frame: One-month post-VR

    The acceptability of the use of virtual reality for implicit bias studies will be surveyed

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Other

Registry information

Official study title

The Use of Virtual Reality to Combat Weight-Based Implicit Bias Among Physicians in Training at Brigham and Women's Hospital: A Pilot Study

Acronym: BWH-VR-1

Important dates

Study start
2024
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
Dec 16, 2025
Registry last updated
Dec 16, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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