Type
VR Patient Education Simulation
Simulations
Every Breath Matters
VR educational simulation helping lung cancer patients understand treatments, manage symptoms, and navigate survivorship through immersive learning.
VR/XRHealthcare & ResearchTraining
Platform
Meta Quest
Engine
Unity (XR Interaction Toolkit)
Technology Stack
UnityMeta QuestXR Interaction ToolkitTextMeshProPlayFabSALSA LipSyncElevenLabsC#
Project overview
Every Breath Matters is a VR educational simulation designed to help lung cancer patients understand treatment, manage symptoms, and navigate survivorship through immersive, interactive learning.
Developed with Columbia University, the experience combines empathy-driven storytelling, evidence-based medical guidance, and comfort-first XR interactions in a modular architecture built for long-term content expansion.
Gameplay Videos
Module Onboarding and Guidance
Avatar narration, questionnaires, and orientation guidance before core learning begins.
App Onboarding and Pathway Selection
Clinic-friendly login, setup, and pathway selection between program tracks.
Interactive Simulations and Engagement
Guided room exploration, interaction points, and module-to-module progression flow.
XR Interaction and Comfort Controls
Teleportation, movement guidance, and comfort-focused navigation systems.
Goals and Challenges
Goals
- •Deliver an accessible VR learning experience for complex lung-cancer education.
- •Provide guided and supportive user journeys through narration and prompts.
- •Ensure comfort and clarity for users with different levels of VR familiarity.
- •Maintain a consistent experience across educational modules.
- •Build a modular architecture that allows new modules to be added over time.
- •Support reliable, clinic-friendly deployment with smooth onboarding and minimal setup.
- •Reduce cognitive load by transforming complex medical information into visual, interactive explanations.
- •Provide clinicians with a standardized teaching tool for consistent patient messaging.
Challenges
- •Unifying UX across independently developed modules and scenes.
- •Balancing comfort, safety, and usability for first-time VR users.
- •Coordinating onboarding, content flow, questionnaires, and completion states.
- •Synchronizing narration, guidance, and interactions without cognitive overload.
- •Preserving performance and stability on standalone VR hardware.
- •Managing cross-scene state and module restarts in a multi-module architecture.
- •Translating sensitive medical content while balancing accuracy, empathy, and emotional support.
- •Validating accessibility and comfort across diverse patient profiles.
Approach and Technology
Architecture
Modular scene-based system + module manager
Supports independent module development with shared progression flow.
XR Foundation
Unity XR Interaction Toolkit + comfort tuning
Height correction, guided movement, and controlled pacing reduce friction.
Narration and Guidance
SALSA LipSync + ElevenLabs + timed visual prompts
Improves clarity, emotional support, and learning consistency.
Data and Scalability
PlayFab session logging and progression tracking
Clinic-ready deployment with a path for additional personalized modules.
Design and Development
- •Structured the experience around a modular, scene-based architecture for independent module development and scalable expansion.
- •Built a centralized module manager to coordinate narration, questionnaires, progress tracking, and completion flow.
- •Developed reusable UI systems (prompts, popups, questionnaire widgets) for consistency and rapid iteration.
- •Implemented guided onboarding per module using narration, timed prompts, and controlled movement pacing.
- •Prioritized XR comfort with height correction, calibrated movement systems, and controlled interaction sequences.
Creative and Technical Innovations
- •Implemented an event-driven module flow where each scene can define custom onboarding, narration, and interaction logic.
- •Designed a dynamic XR origin and height-correction system to improve comfort across different user statures.
- •Introduced movement restrictions during narration to reduce cognitive overload and improve comprehension.
- •Created a reusable questionnaire system with state-based progression and consistent completion handling.
- •Built scalable narration timing tools to keep voice, prompts, and visuals synchronized.
Feature Highlights
Click to expand
Onboarding and Registration
Initial setup and pathway entry for clinical sessions.
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Results and Impact
- •Delivered a clinic-ready VR education platform with clear, empathetic guidance.
- •Improved patient comprehension and confidence through immersive, structured learning.
- •Provided clinicians with a repeatable and consistent communication tool.
- •Validated a scalable framework for future healthcare module expansion.
- •Reduced onboarding friction for first-time VR users through guided controls and predictable interaction flow.
- •Demonstrated that immersive patient education can be both emotionally supportive and clinically practical.
Lessons Learned
- •Centralizing state management through a module manager significantly improves consistency across multi-scene learning systems.
- •XR comfort features, especially movement restriction during narration and height correction, are critical for patient confidence.
- •Modular scene design accelerates creation of new healthcare education pathways and module variants.
- •Combining voice guidance with controlled pacing improves comprehension and reduces anxiety in sensitive learning contexts.
- •Early usability testing helps prevent late-stage accessibility and comfort issues.
Key Takeaways
- •Modular scene architecture accelerates new healthcare content creation.
- •Comfort-first XR systems are essential for patient trust and usability.
- •Narration and paced guidance materially reduce cognitive load.
- •Human-centered design improves both educational outcomes and emotional support.
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