Healthcare and medical case studies
At Mater and Mayo Clinic, staff rehearse the conversation before the shift where it counts.
Where clinical conversations go wrong
A break room, a corridor, a ward at handover: the places where a colleague says the thing that sits with someone for a week.
Mater Education and Mayo Clinic each brought PTR one of those moments. Each now has a VR program that its own staff run, and its own published account of what changed.
Mater Education
Speaking with Good Judgement
Mater's feedback and speaking-up program, rebuilt in VR inside recreations of its own hospital rooms.
Feedback, rehearsed in the rooms it happens in
Participation in the face-to-face program was waning. Mater asked whether a more interactive version could win its audience back without losing the substance.
PTR built a branched VR experience with Mater Education, the program team leads and the Centre for Medical Simulation at Harvard. It was delivered face to face to more than 60 participants across Mater campuses, and Mater's own facilitators were trained to run it.
What Mater staff practised
A choice at the bedside, a colleague who has looked away, a handover at the station: the moments in the build.
What Mater measured
Mater Education evaluated the pilot with the staff who took it. These are its figures.
said they enjoyed the experience
reported an increase in their concentration
wanted more VR-based learning in future programs
participants across Mater campuses
Figures as reported by Mater Education following its program evaluation.Mater Education, immersive learning pilot closure report, 2025
"The evaluation showed great results, with a strong use case for VR to improve communication in health settings."
Leonie Sanderson
Co-founder, People Tech Revolution. Aerospace Xelerated spotlight, Medium
Mayo Clinic
A Day In a Lifetime
Short VR scenarios drawn from Mayo Clinic nurses' own experiences of bias, racism and allyship, with a facilitated debrief after each one.
Nurse leaders meet the moment before the floor does
Built by People Tech Revolution and co-designed with Mayo Clinic nursing staff, the series puts nurse and social worker leaders inside conversations they had described from their own careers.
It reached more than 1,100 leaders across Mayo Clinic campuses, and two peer-reviewed papers reported gains in empathy and in willingness to act as an upstander. Read the controlled trial.
The scenes Mayo Clinic leaders stepped into
A staff room table, a facilitator beside the headset, a ward bay with the lights low.
Where the practice goes next
The same method reaches other clinical conversations: a ward round, a dental chair, the route through a clinic.
Inside the Mater build
The same piece of feedback, landing two different ways.
At the bedside, from the speaker's position
The film is a short capture from inside Speaking with Good Judgement, Mater's own program for giving feedback and speaking up, rebuilt so hospital staff can rehearse it in the rooms where it happens.
The full account of the pilot, and what Mater measured, is in the case study.
Where next
The industry page, the research behind the Mayo Clinic program, and the pages that explain the medium.
And more places to look
Every case study PTR has published, and the practice room hospitals return to for a repeatable shift.
Want a result like this for your own healthcare team?
