Effectiveness of a Combined e-Learning and Virtual Reality Training Program for Healthcare Providers in Rheumatology

NCT07835256 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: 2024-06-10-A.W.M.Evers-V1-5522
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 936
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of communication training on the communication skills of the healthcare provider in the rheumatology department during consults with patients. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Is communication training effective in increasing the self-perceived communication skills of the healthcare provider?
• Is communication training effective in increasing the evaluation of patients on the communication skills of their corresponding healthcare provider? Researchers will compare one group who will receive communication training to one group who will not receive any training to see if there is a significant difference in self-evaluation and patient-evaluation on their communication skills. Participants will begin by completing a pre-test self-evaluation questionnaire, followed by communication training. After the training, they will complete a post-test self-evaluation questionnaire. Over the next eight weeks following the training, participants will gather evaluations from their patients on their communication skills during the most recent consultation.

Conditions

Rheumatic Diseases

Keywords

rheumatology; communication; placebo effects

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Changes in total scores from a pre-test to a post-test evaluation between the arms on the SE-12 self-evaluation questionnaire, supplemented with customized questions regarding patient expectations.

  The self-evaluation questionnaire consists of questions about communication skills, primarily focused on how certain the healthcare provider is in successfully performing a specific action during the consultation with a patient. The ratings are scored on a scale of one to ten, with one being very unlikely and ten being very likely.

  After inclusion into the study, which precedes the training with mostly a few weeks, a baseline assessment is done. After completing the training, a post-test evaluation is done, within approximately 2 weeks after the training.

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Score difference between arms on patient-evaluation based on the QQPPI questionnaire, supplemented with customized questions regarding expectations for the communication skills of healthcare providers during their most recent consultation.

  Patient-evaluations will be collected over the course of eight weeks after completing the communication training by healthcare providers

Study Arms (2)

Communicating training group

EXPERIMENTAL

Healthcare providers in the experimental group receive communication training consisting of an e-Learning communication course and knowledge exam of 1 hour and communication training in a virtual reality environment with a virtual avatar for 1 hour.

Behavioral: Expectancy-based communication training for healthcare providers

No training group

NO INTERVENTION

Healthcare providers in the control group receive no training but have the opportunity to receive the training after the study has been concluded.

Interventions

Expectancy-based communication training for healthcare providers BEHAVIORAL

An e-learning course comprising six modules, each featuring case-based questions, followed by a comprehensive knowledge exam. The course concludes with a Virtual Reality training program, which includes two immersive modules and AI-generated dialogue for an interactive learning experience.

Communicating training group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• being 18 years or older
• having a good command of the Dutch language, both written and spoken.
• being a healthcare provider within the rheumatology department (e.g., rheumatologist, physician assistant, rheumatology nurse, medical resident, or medical researcher).
• regularly seeing rheumatology patients during consultations.

You may not qualify if:

• being 18 years or older
• having a good command of the Dutch language, both written and spoken
• having had a consultation with one of the participating healthcare providers (intervention or control group) within the past 8 weeks

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Leiden University: lead
• Leiden University Medical Center: collaborator
• Reade Rheumatology Research Institute: collaborator
• Erasmus Medical Center: collaborator
• VieCuri Medical Centre: collaborator
• Medisch Spectrum Twente: collaborator
• Frisius Medisch Centrum: collaborator
• Dijklander Hospital, Hoorn and Purmerend, The Netherlands: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Leiden University

Leiden, South Holland, 2333AK, Netherlands

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Rheumatic Diseases; Communication

Interventions

Health Personnel

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Musculoskeletal Diseases; Connective Tissue Diseases; Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases; Behavior

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Health Care Facilities Workforce and Services

Study Officials

• Henriët van Middendorp, PhD

  Leiden University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Victor Leong, MSc.

CONTACT

6 46167311; o.v.leong@fsw.leidenuniv.nl

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate professor health & medical psychology

Model Details: Participants consist of 52 healthcare providers and 884 patients. For healthcare providers, one group will receive communication training (experimental group) and the other will receive no training (control group). The control group will receive the training at study end. The patient population will include individuals who have had a consultation with a healthcare provider from either the experimental group or the control group.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 27, 2026
• First Posted: September 22, 2026
• Study Start: March 27, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): April 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 1, 2027
• Last Updated: September 22, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-07

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Data will become available after publication of the study and remain available for 10 years.
• Access Criteria: The data will be securely restricted and access will be granted upon request to the author for research purposes.

Locations

NL (1)