“Virtual reality requires clinical leadership, professional engagement and a clear healthcare need”

Doctor and researcher José Ferrer has been awarded the TIC Salut Mental Grant by the TIC Salut i Social Foundation and the Barbosa & Petit Foundation for his project exploring how virtual reality and other immersive technologies can be more effectively adopted within healthcare settings.

We spoke with Ferrer, a member of the Innovation and Research team at Badalona Serveis Assistencials (BSA), PhD candidate at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and researcher at the Jordi Gol Primary Care Research Institute, about the opportunities and challenges of bringing immersive technologies into everyday clinical practice. His work focuses on developing a tool to help healthcare organisations assess when and how these technologies can provide real value for both professionals and patients.

Could you explain what the tool you are developing as part of your project consists of?

The research focuses on developing a tool that helps healthcare teams assess whether it makes sense to incorporate immersive technologies into a specific care setting, why they could add value and what conditions would be necessary to ensure that their incorporation is safe, useful and sustainable.

When we talk about immersive reality, we refer to technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. These are digital tools that allow people to experience something more interactive and sensory than a conventional screen. For example, with virtual reality headsets, a person can feel immersed in a digital environment, such as a relaxing space, a simulation or a therapeutic activity, while augmented reality overlays digital elements onto the real environment.

The aim is to help healthcare professionals and organisations make more informed decisions before implementing these tools, assessing aspects such as clinical usefulness, safety, acceptance by patients and professionals, and the real capacity to integrate them into everyday healthcare practice.

At Badalona Serveis Assistencials you have an established track record in the application of immersive technologies in the fields of health and wellbeing. Could you share some success stories that exemplify the benefits of this technology in these settings?

At BSA we have spent several years working with virtual reality and other immersive technologies in health, wellbeing and training projects. We have applied them in areas such as professionals’ emotional wellbeing, chronic pain, cognitive rehabilitation, preoperative preparation, complex care, paediatric populations and neurodiversity.

What we have learned is that, when properly used, these technologies do not replace professionals, but rather help them achieve certain therapeutic or educational objectives more effectively. They can reduce anxiety, encourage participation, improve motivation and make the healthcare experience more humane during moments of vulnerability. For me, this is the key point: technology should serve the care relationship, not the other way around.

Taking these applications into account, what criteria would you say are essential for immersive technologies to provide real value in healthcare practice?

The first key factor is that the technology should respond to a real need. There is often great enthusiasm around innovation, but if it does not solve a specific problem or make teams’ work easier, it is difficult for it to gain traction.

It is then necessary to assess aspects such as safety, usability, acceptance by patients and professionals, resource availability and the ability to integrate into routine healthcare pathways. The same tool may make perfect sense in one department while adding very little value in another.

For me, the final criterion is very clear: technology should help reduce avoidable suffering, improve comfort or strengthen the therapeutic relationship. If it creates more complications than benefits, then it is probably not the right moment or the right context.

Despite the potential and benefits you mentioned, incorporating these technologies also presents challenges. What usually fails when adopting these tools in healthcare settings?

Often it is not the technology that fails, but the way it is implemented. Some pilot projects work well initially, but then become difficult to sustain because there is a lack of time, training, institutional support or alignment with the reality of healthcare teams.

Unrealistic expectations can also emerge. Virtual reality alone will not solve structural problems within the healthcare system. Virtual reality requires clinical leadership, professional engagement and a clear healthcare need.

That is why I believe it is important to move forward progressively, listening carefully to teams and understanding that implementing technology in healthcare is, above all, a process of organisational and human change, not just a technological one.

Focusing on the field of mental health, for which you received the TIC Salut Mental Grant, what challenges or needs do you think immersive technologies can address more effectively than other digital tools?

Immersive technologies have a unique ability to create experiential situations. This can help capture attention, encourage emotional engagement and generate a sense of presence that other digital tools do not always achieve.

In mental health, they can be useful for anxiety regulation, emotional wellbeing, skills training and adapting environments for people with different needs. They allow us to move from abstract explanation to a more direct and guided experience.

However, caution is essential. They do not replace therapeutic support or the professional relationship. They are a support tool, and their value depends on how they are integrated into a broader clinical intervention.

With all this in mind, what message would you give to SISCAT professionals who are considering incorporating immersive technologies into their healthcare practice?

I would tell them not to see it as a trend or as a universal solution. The first question should always be what problem they want to address and whether this technology can provide real value in that specific context.

I also believe it is important for professionals to experience it themselves before assessing its clinical use. Immersive reality is a very different digital tool from others because it creates a much more intense sense of presence and emotional impact. Until you try it, it is difficult to truly understand both what it can offer and what its limitations are.

And above all, they should always keep the focus on people. When technology helps reduce anxiety, improve comfort or make a difficult experience more humane, that is when it can truly make sense within the healthcare system.