Department of Genetic Counseling, College of Medicine Graduate School, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea.
Cancer Center for Women, Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, Ewha Womans University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Ann Lab Med. 2024 Jan 1;44(1):82-91. doi: 10.3343/alm.2024.44.1.82. Epub 2023 Sep 4.
Group genetic counseling has been implemented to meet growing demand. A metaverse platform, in which a society is built and activities are carried out in the virtual world, has not yet been implemented in group genetic counseling. We investigated whether a metaverse platform could be an alternative service-delivery model for group genetic counseling.
Participants (N=131) were divided into three groups: patient (N=45), family (N= 43), and interested (N=43) groups. Participants entered the metaverse through a link sent to their mobile phones and attended a 20-min group genetic counseling session reviewing hereditary breast cancer, followed by a 10-min question-and-answer period.
The overall median score of post-educational knowledge (9.0, range 8.0-10.0) significantly increased compared to that of pre-educational knowledge (6.0, range 3.0-8.0) (<0.001). There was no significant difference in the pre- and post-educational knowledge scores among the three groups (>0.05). Most participants (95%) responded that their understanding of hereditary breast cancer had increased after the group genetic counseling session and that their satisfaction was high. The main advantage noted with metaverse was no limit of space and location while attending the session (97%), and the main disadvantage was a possibility of missing content due to an unstable internet connection (67%).
The metaverse platform would be acceptable as an alternative group genetic counseling service. More studies are needed to investigate how, for whom, and in what circumstances metaverse can be effectively utilized.
为满足日益增长的需求，已经实施了小组遗传咨询。元宇宙平台尚未在小组遗传咨询中实施，在该平台中可以在虚拟世界中构建社会并开展活动。我们调查了元宇宙平台是否可以作为小组遗传咨询的替代服务提供模式。
参与者（N=131）分为三组：患者组（N=45）、家庭组（N=43）和感兴趣组（N=43）。参与者通过发送到手机的链接进入元宇宙，参加了 20 分钟的小组遗传咨询会议，回顾了遗传性乳腺癌，随后进行了 10 分钟的问答环节。
与教育前知识（6.0，范围 3.0-8.0）相比，总体中位数教育后知识评分（9.0，范围 8.0-10.0）显著增加（<0.001）。三组的教育前后知识评分均无显著差异（>0.05）。大多数参与者（95%）表示，在小组遗传咨询会议后，他们对遗传性乳腺癌的理解有所提高，并且满意度很高。使用元宇宙的主要优势是参加会议时没有空间和位置的限制（97%），主要缺点是由于网络连接不稳定，可能会错过内容（67%）。
元宇宙平台作为小组遗传咨询的替代服务是可以接受的。需要进一步研究元宇宙如何、为谁以及在什么情况下可以有效地利用。
