Exploring Extended Reality in Physician Assistant/Associate Educational Training Programs: A State-of-the-Art (Technology) Review.

Introduction: As the world becomes more technology focused, emerging technologies such as extended reality (XR) have been incorporated into medical education over the past few decades. Now that XR is more accessible to physician assistant (PA) education, educators must determine the extent to which XR can improve knowledge retention over current modalities. The purpose of this article was to perform a review of what XR pedagogical approaches are being used in PA education and what value they provide to learning.

Methods: A thorough literature database search conducted by a research librarian identified 228 unique articles published between 2012 and August 2023. These articles were further categorized by date, language, study method, and population sample and further screened for relevance and eligibility. Of the 228 unique articles identified, 8 met the eligibility criteria for this review.

Results: The focus of research ranged from XR integration to proof of concept of XR in educational environments. Selected studies used both qualitative and quantitative data. General impressions of XR in PA education reflect its potential to supplement current methods; however, the authors also admit the need for additional critical analysis.

Discussion: While there is a paucity of research into this specific topic, multiple studies showed that using XR principles in medical education led to better confidence among students and improved their perception of learning. While there currently is no direct statistically significant evidence to show a superiority of XR over traditional didactic learning, it is important to consider that not all educational tools need to improve outcomes; rather, they can improve student perception, which opens the door to further learning. Future studies should continue to longitudinally evaluate integrating XR into PA programs with a specific focus on knowledge retention.