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

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

Inclusion Criteria:

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