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Jan 16, 2026

IMS Clinical Research Skills Team Publishes New Study on Virtual Reality in Graduate Education

Courses, Current Students, Faculty, Programs
People wearing virtual reality headsets

The IMS Clinical Research Skills Team — Kyla Lee, Maryam Sorkhou, Nicole Harnett, Sobiga Vyravanathan, Theodore Brown, Evan Tannenbaum and Nairy Khodabakhshian — has released a new peerreviewed publication titled “Virtual Reality for Developing Patient-facing Communication Skills in a Medical Science Graduate Education Course: A Mixed-Methods Pre-Post Study.”

The mixed-methods study examined how graduate students used virtual reality in the newly developed course (MSC1121) to practice patient-facing communication in research. Results showed significant gains in students’ knowledge and confidence after the course.

Students described the VR experience as realistic and immersive, while also highlighting challenges navigating researcher versus clinician roles, reinforcing the importance of strong training in informed consent and culturally safe research practices.