Pira Giorgio Li, Ruini Chiara, Vescovelli Francesca, Baños Rosa, Ventura Sara
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Department for Life Quality Studies, University of Bologna, Rimini, Italy.
J Med Syst. 2025 Jan 14;49(1):6. doi: 10.1007/s10916-025-02144-9.
The physician-patient relationship relies mostly on doctors' empathetic abilities to understand and manage patients' emotions, enhancing patient satisfaction and treatment adherence. With the advent of digital technologies in education, innovative empathy training methods such as virtual reality, simulation training systems, mobile apps, and wearable devices, have emerged for teaching empathy. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the efficacy of these technologies in teaching empathy, the most effective types, and the primary beneficiaries -students or advanced healthcare professionals-. This study aims to address this gap through a literature review following PRISMA guidelines. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in the PsychINFO, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases using specific keywords. Inclusion criteria for articles were established, and two researchers independently rated the selected articles, resolving any disagreements by consensus. Out of 1137 articles screened, a total of 14 articles were included in this review with a total of 1285 participants, who received empathic training integrated with the use of digital technologies. Only 9 articles defined the construct of empathy, focusing on cognitive, affective, clinical, or cultural aspects. Empathy was assessed with various methods and promoted through various digital technologies, including wearables (e.g. HMDs, SymPulse™ armband) and non-wearable devices (computer monitors, Mobile Apps, Kinect System). Participants were primarily medical students (68.1%), with few healthcare workers (31.9%) and nurses (2.9%). All digital technologies effectively promoted empathy among the target population except for 3 studies that involved advanced career healthcare workers. This review highlights the potential efficacy of digital technologies in fostering empathy among medical students, though not as effectively among advanced healthcare professionals. These insights have implications for designing targeted educational programs that address the distinct needs of healthcare professionals at varying career stages. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.
医患关系主要依赖医生理解和处理患者情绪的共情能力，以提高患者满意度和治疗依从性。随着数字技术在教育领域的出现，诸如虚拟现实、模拟训练系统、移动应用程序和可穿戴设备等创新的共情训练方法已出现用于共情教学。然而，关于这些技术在共情教学中的效果、最有效的类型以及主要受益者（学生或高级医疗专业人员），文献中存在空白。本研究旨在遵循PRISMA指南通过文献综述来填补这一空白。使用特定关键词在PsychINFO、Scopus、PubMed和科学网数据库中进行了全面的文献检索。确定了文章的纳入标准，两名研究人员独立对所选文章进行评分，通过共识解决任何分歧。在筛选的1137篇文章中，本综述共纳入14篇文章，共有1285名参与者，他们接受了与数字技术使用相结合的共情训练。只有9篇文章定义了共情的结构，重点关注认知、情感、临床或文化方面。通过各种方法评估共情，并通过各种数字技术促进共情，包括可穿戴设备（如头戴式显示器、SymPulse™臂带）和非可穿戴设备（电脑显示器、移动应用程序、Kinect系统）。参与者主要是医学生（68.1%），医护人员（31.9%）和护士（2.9%）较少。除了3项涉及高级职业医护人员的研究外，所有数字技术都有效地促进了目标人群的共情。本综述强调了数字技术在培养医学生共情方面的潜在效果，尽管在高级医疗专业人员中效果不那么显著。这些见解对于设计针对不同职业阶段医护人员不同需求的有针对性的教育项目具有启示意义。还讨论了局限性和未来的研究方向。
