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Reporting Guideline for Therapeutic Immersive Virtual Reality Interventions: International eDelphi Study (INVIRTUE)
Syl Slatman1,2, Daniel Harvie3, Max van der Heijden1
1Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Research Group, School for Allied Health, HAN University of Applied Sciences, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Journal of Medical Extended Reality
|August 6, 2026
Summary
A new guideline, INVIRTUE, was developed to standardize reporting for virtual reality (VR) interventions in healthcare. This ensures clarity, reproducibility, and effective clinical implementation of therapeutic VR.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Medical Technology
- Digital Health
Background:
- Virtual reality (VR) adoption in healthcare is growing, leading to increased research publications.
- Limited guidance on reporting VR interventions risks misinterpretation, hinders data synthesis, and reduces reproducibility.
- Inconsistent reporting may lead to misuse and impede clinical implementation of VR.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a consensus-based reporting guideline for therapeutic, immersive virtual reality (VR) interventions using head-mounted displays.
- To establish key items and categories for reporting VR interventions in scientific publications.
Main Methods:
- A three-round, modified, online Delphi study with a validation meeting was conducted.
- International experts in therapeutic VR research were recruited using convenience, purposive, and snowball sampling.
- Consensus was defined as ≥75% agreement on reporting items and categories.
Main Results:
- 61 out of 280 invited experts completed the three-round Delphi study.
- The resulting guideline, INVIRTUE, comprises 16 reporting items across six categories: theory, content, deployment, development, safety, and context.
- Participants had an average of 6 years of experience in VR research.
Conclusions:
- The INVIRTUE guideline provides a framework for describing therapeutic VR interventions.
- Implementing this guideline can enhance uniformity, completeness, and replicability of VR intervention reporting.
- This tool supports scientific progress, efficient empirical comparison, and effective clinical implementation of therapeutic VR.
