Dementia Training for Physiotherapy Practitioners and Students using Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Virtual Reality Technology

An AI-enhanced VR dementia training program will be developed and pilot tested with physiotherapy students and practitioners. The scenario developed for the study will be a 'virtual' physiotherapy treatment session with a patient with dementia, conducted in a physiotherapy gym in a hospital. The treatment scenario will involve the physiotherapist avatar leading the patient avatar through a series of tests and exercises, such as mobilising around cones and stepping up on to a step in the parallel bars. The trainees (physiotherapists and physiotherapy students) will wear a VR headset to experience the dementia training program. There will be the possibility for trainees to experience the scenario from both the patient and physiotherapist perspectives. The scenario will be developed to use with the Oculus Rift S VR headsets to aid portability and increase the level of immersion of the training experience. The Oculus Rift S VR headset is the most powerful PC-powered gaming VR headset and was co-developed by Lenovo Technologies and Oculus. The trainee wears the headset over their eyes and it is held in place by a 'halo' headband that fits around their head. The scenario developed for this study will use AI to facilitate greater interaction of the trainee during training; changes to the avatar such as gender, culture and behaviour that represent the diverse population of people with dementia and the different types of dementia. The VR training program will run for approximately 10 minutes and will only be completed once by participants. Participants will not include people with dementia. Feedback on the training program will be collected via a post-workshop survey competed by participants when they have completed their pilot test of the training program.