Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Applied Oral Sciences and Community Dental Care, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
J Med Internet Res. 2021 Feb 10;23(2):e25499. doi: 10.2196/25499.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have recently become popular research themes. However, there are no published bibliometric reports that have analyzed the corresponding scientific literature in relation to the application of these technologies in medicine.
We used a bibliometric approach to identify and analyze the scientific literature on VR and AR research in medicine, revealing the popular research topics, key authors, scientific institutions, countries, and journals. We further aimed to capture and describe the themes and medical conditions most commonly investigated by VR and AR research.
The Web of Science electronic database was searched to identify relevant papers on VR research in medicine. Basic publication and citation data were acquired using the "Analyze" and "Create Citation Report" functions of the database. Complete bibliographic data were exported to VOSviewer and Bibliometrix, dedicated bibliometric software packages, for further analyses. Visualization maps were generated to illustrate the recurring keywords and words mentioned in the titles and abstracts.
The analysis was based on data from 8399 papers. Major research themes were diagnostic and surgical procedures, as well as rehabilitation. Commonly studied medical conditions were pain, stroke, anxiety, depression, fear, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders. Overall, contributions to the literature were globally distributed with heaviest contributions from the United States and United Kingdom. Studies from more clinically related research areas such as surgery, psychology, neurosciences, and rehabilitation had higher average numbers of citations than studies from computer sciences and engineering.
The conducted bibliometric analysis unequivocally reveals the versatile emerging applications of VR and AR in medicine. With the further maturation of the technology and improved accessibility in countries where VR and AR research is strong, we expect it to have a marked impact on clinical practice and in the life of patients.
虚拟现实（VR）和增强现实（AR）最近成为热门的研究主题。然而，目前尚无发表的文献计量报告分析这些技术在医学中的应用相关的科学文献。
我们采用文献计量学方法，确定和分析医学中 VR 和 AR 研究的科学文献，揭示热门研究主题、关键作者、科研机构、国家和期刊。我们进一步旨在捕捉和描述 VR 和 AR 研究中最常研究的主题和医学病症。
在 Web of Science 电子数据库中搜索与医学中的 VR 研究相关的论文。使用数据库的“分析”和“创建引文报告”功能获取基本的发表和引用数据。将完整的书目数据导出到 VOSviewer 和 Bibliometrix，这是专门的文献计量软件包，以进行进一步分析。生成可视化图谱，以说明标题和摘要中经常出现的关键词和词汇。
分析基于来自 8399 篇论文的数据。主要研究主题是诊断和手术程序以及康复。常研究的医学病症包括疼痛、中风、焦虑、抑郁、恐惧、癌症和神经退行性疾病。总体而言，文献贡献在全球范围内分布，美国和英国的贡献最大。来自手术、心理学、神经科学和康复等更具临床相关性的研究领域的研究比来自计算机科学和工程领域的研究平均引文数更高。
进行的文献计量分析明确揭示了 VR 和 AR 在医学中的多种新兴应用。随着技术的进一步成熟以及在 VR 和 AR 研究强大的国家提高了可及性，我们预计它将对临床实践和患者的生活产生显著影响。
