Immersive Medicine

Immersive Medicine: The Transformative Potential of Immersive Technologies in Edmonton’s Healthcare System

IMMERSIVE The TransformativeAND Potential of Immersive Technologies in HealthcareCOUNCIL (ICTC)1 PREPAREDMEDICINE:

BY THE INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY

ABOUT ELIXR SIMULATIONS

ABOUT ICTC

ELIXR Simulations is a non-profit organization committed to harnessing the potential of virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies to transform education.

The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) is a notfor-profit, national centre of expertise for strengthening Canada’s digital advantage in a global economy.

Through trusted research, practical policy advice, and creative capacitybuilding programs, ICTC fosters globally competitive Canadian industries enabled by innovative and diverse digital talent. In partnership with an expansive network of industry leaders, academic partners, and policy makers from across Canada, ICTC has empowered a robust and inclusive digital economy for over 25 years.

To cite this report

Spiteri, Suzanne. 2026. Immersive Medicine: The Transformative Potential of Immersive Technologies in Edmonton’s Healthcare System. Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC).

Researched and written by Suzanne Spiteri, with generous support from the ICTC Research & Policy team.

The opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of ELIXR, the Government of Alberta, or the Government of Canada.

The Province of Alberta is working in partnership with the Government of Canada to provide employment support programs and services.

Contents Contents........................................................................................................ 3 Executive Summary................................................................................. 4 Key Takeaways............................................................................................ 6 Introduction................................................................................................. 7 Use Cases and Opportunities: How Immersive Technology Can Transform Edmonton’s Healthcare System.........................8 Adoption Challenge: Costs, Capacity, and Culture...................11 Upskilling....................................................................................................... 14 › For healthcare professionals.................................................................................... 14 › For immersive tech professionals......................................................................... 15 › For policy, regulatory, procurement, and education organizations... 15

How Can Edmonton Position Itself As a Leader in Preparing the Future Healthcare and Tech Workforce?.........16 › Building Edmonton’s health and tech talent advantage........................... 17

Conclusion.................................................................................................... 18 Appendix A: Methodology.....................................................................19 References.................................................................................................... 20

Executive Summary

Extended reality (XR), including virtual and augmented reality and related tools, can improve healthcare in Edmonton by enhancing clinical training, patient care, and workforce development. Through focus groups with healthcare leaders, post-secondary institutions, technology experts, and policymakers, this report identifies proven local opportunities, adoption barriers, and a roadmap to scale XR from scattered pilots to implementation.

What Edmonton’s leaders see in XR

Stakeholders who participated in the focus groups across healthcare and education sectors were largely familiar with XR technologies. They viewed XR as a way to digitize existing methods and as a transformative toolset that can reshape mindsets and professional practices.

Participants noted potential benefits, including improved learning experiences, better communication, lower staff turnover, reduced burnout, and greater caregiver satisfaction.

Examples from local and global applications included empathy and bias training, interprofessional planning in shared threedimensional (3D) environments, digital-twin walk-throughs to de-risk new clinical spaces, and repeatable skills training supported by motion capture and immediate feedback.

Looking ahead, participants identified Edmonton’s strongest opportunities to improve access and equity for rural and remote teams, accelerate onboarding for internationally educated health professionals, enable ondemand learning outside simulation lab schedules, and improve care coordination, particularly in discharge planning.

Barriers to adoption

Participants emphasized that XR adoption faces several challenges. Costs extend well beyond hardware and pilot budgets to include hosting, licensing, upgrades, facilitation, integration, and information technology (IT) capacity to manage large device fleets.

Without addressing these factors, the return on investment (ROI) remains limited. Edmonton’s

many pilots have generated enthusiasm but are fragmented, duplicative, and undersupported. Sustained progress requires visible executive sponsorship, yet many leaders lack digital expertise and demand evidence before committing to ongoing funding.

Cultural barriers—such as risk aversion, perceptions of XR as a novelty, slow approval processes, unclear accountability, inconsistent instructor skills, and internal networks limiting access—continue to slow adoption.

Pathways forward

Participants proposed solutions aligned with research on overcoming “pilotitis.” They recommend making XR a formal strategic priority, supported by executive champions.

A shared XR hub could serve multiple facilities by pooling devices, managing hosting, curating scenario repositories, and standardizing evaluation methods. Streamlined pathways should move projects from pilot to full operation through predefined privacy, cybersecurity, safety reviews, and procurement processes that account for full lifecycle costs.

Investing in leadership and educator training will be important to long-term success.

Documenting and sharing incremental wins can help demonstrate value and build support.

Participants also highlighted the potential to leverage hospital foundations and innovation funds to sustain hosting, updates, and device renewal. By taking these coordinated steps, Edmonton can position itself as a national leader in applying XR to healthcare education and delivery, turning promise into practice and advancing patient-centred, equitable, and high-performing care.

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Key Takeaways EXTENDED REALITY (XR) IS ALREADY ADDING VALUE AND EDMONTON HAS CLEAR NEAR-TERM USE CASES. Participants described real impact from empathy and bias training, digital-twin walkthroughs, interprofessional planning, and repeatable skills practice. They saw strong opportunities in discharge-planning rehearsals, on-demand “XR skills studios,” and patientjourney simulations to improve communication and care.

COST AND “PILOTITIS” ARE STALLING SCALE. Funding concentrates on pilots rather than operations (hosting, licensing, device refresh, facilitation, IT fleet management). Without sustained budgets and clear adoption plans, ROI is undermined and promising trials fail to become routine practice.

LEADERSHIP, EVIDENCE EXPECTATIONS, AND CULTURE ARE MAKE-OR-BREAK. Progress hinges on at least one executive champion. Many decision-makers lack digital fluency and require hard practice-level evidence before committing operating dollars, while risk-averse, status-quo mindsets and “gimmick/game tech” perceptions slow approvals and uptake.

FRAGMENTATION AND UNCLEAR PATHWAYS BLOCK REUSE. Parallel pilots use different hardware, content, workflows, and evaluation methods, duplicating effort. Participants called for a shared XR hub (pooled devices, hosting, vetted scenario repository, standard evidence/reporting) and clear routes from pilot procurement operations, plus XR-specific procurement and pre-agreed privacy/cyber/safety reviews.

TALENT, TRAINING, AND EQUITY NEED A DELIBERATE STRATEGY. Participants emphasized building a local talent pipeline, upskilling clinicians, sim facilitators, and educators in XR facilitation, debriefing, and learning design; adding new roles such as content auditors and broker/tech educators; and ensuring all staff have basic XR interface fluency. They also stressed equitable access: design for rural/remote and Indigenous settings, support internationally educated health professionals (IEHP) onboarding with Canadian-context and cultural/safety modules, and provide protected time and coaching so XR becomes routine practice rather than an optional add-on.

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Introduction

As an innovative and transformative technology, extended reality (XR) has shown significant promise and produced substantial advantages across multiple sectors, including healthcare. Encapsulating a range of tools that blend physical and virtual environments,1 XR technology has demonstrated significant potential in healthcare, offering benefits across a wide range of clinical applications (Khan 2023).

In healthcare systems, clinical care, and medical education, XR technology is increasingly being recognized for its potential to drive transformative change.

With recent developments in XR and patient-centred co-design having ushered in a new era of possibilities, challenging traditional approaches to healthcare management (Jones et al. 2024), XR technologies are reshaping healthcare education, training, and patient care.

Research has shown that XR can improve patient outcomes, enhance communication among healthcare professionals, and increase cost-effectiveness (Ali et al. 2023; Valen 2023).

Around the world, XR is being applied across a wide range of healthcare contexts, including medical education, patient education, health literacy promotion, surgical planning, remote treatment, and mental-health therapy.

By creating immersive environments, XR enables medical students and professionals to explore anatomy, practice procedures, and improve spatial understanding in ways not possible with traditional methods. Virtual patient models allow clinicians to “look into” organs and structures beyond what MRI or CT scans can show, supporting more precise surgical planning and communication among medical teams. XR-based simulators have also been shown to enhance performance in neurosurgery, ophthalmology, and thoracic surgery by allowing trainees to rehearse techniques and receive feedback in a safe, controlled setting (Ali et al.

2023; Valen 2023). During live operations, XR can overlay digital images or three-dimensional (3D) anatomical visualizations into the surgeon’s field

of view, improving precision, reducing surgical time, and minimizing the risk of damaging vital structures. Additionally, applications now extend from managing phantom limb pain and social anxiety to supporting post-stroke recovery and enhancing geriatric well-being.

Moreover, XR facilitates remote diagnosis and treatment, connecting specialists with patients in underserved regions, enabling possibilities for more individualized care and increased access to rural and remote communities; XR has also shown therapeutic benefits in mental healthcare, helping patients manage conditions such as phobias and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) through controlled virtual environments (Ali et al. 2023; Jones et al. 2024; Valen 2023).

Moreover, XR applications can elevate patient outcomes and clinical practice by expanding the range of innovative, interactive, and data-driven services available to patients and providers alike.

Across Canada, health systems and researchers are using XR for clinical care and training, ranging from pain and anxiety management during procedures to surgical simulation and planning (Farrell and MacDougall 2023).

1 Extended Reality (XR) encompasses augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR), as well as related haptics, interfaces, platforms, and software. Collectively referred to as XR in this report, these immersive technologies use computer modelling and simulation to enable users to interact with artificial three-dimensional (3D) visual or sensory environments. VR provides fully immersive, computer-generated environments navigated through specialized hardware such as headsets. AR overlays digital information, such as images, audio, or data, onto real-world environments in real time, allowing users to interact with physical and virtual elements simultaneously. MR merges real and virtual environments so that physical and digital objects coexist and interact in real time, offering greater spatial awareness and interactivity than AR alone.

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In Edmonton specifically, XR technologies are actively being implemented across healthcare research, education, and clinical practice.

At the University of Alberta, for example, the Rehabilitation Robotics Lab applies VR/ XR for rehabilitation, telerehabilitation, and virtual-care projects, including studies in human biomechanics. Among its innovations is CRESSim, a realistic surgical simulator, which allows for the teleoperation of simulated surgical tasks, such as tissue grasping, suction, and cutting, through a virtual reality interface using real-world robotic manipulators (University of Alberta n.d.). The Geoffrey and Robyn Sperber Health Sciences Library, opened in 2023, and the Digital Scholarship Centre both offer dedicated, bookable VR labs that let students and researchers explore the human body in 3D, model chemical compounds, and experience cognitive or physical disabilities through immersive simulation (University of Alberta Libraries

2023; University of Alberta Libraries 2024).

Beyond the university, Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital uses the CAREN VR platform for clinical and research applications, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rehabilitation and motion analysis (Alberta Health Services n.d.). However, limited overall implementation and evaluation of emerging XR technologies have made it difficult to fully understand how they can be leveraged to enhance healthcare delivery and workforce development.

Focusing on Edmonton, this study identifies the current and future skill needs and opportunities in the immersive technology–based healthcare sector (ITHS). Specifically, it investigates how immersive technologies are currently being used in healthcare, identifies opportunities for their application in workforce development, explores barriers to their adoption, and examines the evolving skills and training needs required to support their broader implementation.

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USE CASES AND OPPORTUNITIES:

How Immersive Technology Can Transform Edmonton’s Healthcare System

Participants in this research saw the opportunities of XR for healthcare as vast and expanding. Participants were highly familiar with these technologies and understood them as capable of delivering “transformational experiences, improved communications … less turnover, less burnout, [and] happier caregivers.”

Participants described seeing immersive tools make a difference, locally and globally, in areas like empathetic understanding-building for dementia and brain injury care, bias-awareness training with measurable eye-tracking data, interprofessional care planning in shared 3D environments, and digital-twin walkthroughs that de-risk new clinical spaces.

Broadly, participants understood XR as much more than digitizing old methods, seeing it as a promising toolset that can deliver transformational experiences, shift mindsets and practice, measurably improve care and training, and, in Edmonton, address healthcare challenges that current methods struggle to solve.

Participants identified several Edmonton healthcare challenges they felt immersive technology could address better than current methods, pointing to access, cost, onboarding, equity, and coordination.

Identifying XR as “a more affordable option to provide training … especially with funding constraints,” participants suggested leveraging it to streamline the onboarding process for internationally educated health professionals (IEHPs). By integrating modules focused on Canadian healthcare, communication standards, and cultural safety, XR could help accelerate their readiness to enter the workforce.

As Canada continues to face a shortage of healthcare providers, securing sufficient and high-quality clinical placements has become increasingly difficult for educators. Thus, participants felt that virtual simulations might offer a valuable alternative. These interactive learning environments use screen-based platforms to replicate realistic clinical scenarios, allowing learners to engage in hands-on

experiences and receive immediate feedback, an essential component of effective learning. They also provide a safe, flexible space for students to practise and refine their clinical skills, with the ability to revisit and repeat patient cases as often as necessary (Verkuyl et al. 2024).

The potential benefits of repeatable, on-demand learning, beyond just for IEHPs emerged as a central theme, with participants noting XR’s potential to support ongoing skill development beyond traditional training. Because XR enables learners to participate in virtual treatment sessions where they can observe and practise procedures without posing any risk to patients, offering a powerful way to bridge the gap between traditional classroom instruction and real-world clinical experience and serving as a valuable complement to current educational approaches, participants felt that XR could allow healthcare workers to practise and refine their skills on their own schedule, not just when a sim lab or preceptor is available. Envisioning XR skills studios and mental-health practice rooms, participants described concrete learning uses, such as procedural rehearsal with motion capture and immediate feedback (e.g., physical therapy / occupational therapy [OT] tasks, ventilation management, and select invasive procedures) and mental-health skills via “practice therapy sessions for mental-health clinicians.”

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Participants noted that post-secondary institutions and training organizations could use XR platforms to simulate complex procedures, such as injections, catheterizations, or intubations, in a risk-free, repeatable environment. Pointing to the flexibility and visualizations offered by XR technologies, participants felt XR could enable repeated practice in safe environments away from patients, stress, or time pressure. They noted it outperforms current methods by making practice unlimited and standardized, enabling safe trialand-error with instant feedback, reducing dependence on scarce preceptors and room bookings, and extending high-quality training to off-shift or rural teams.

Noting the absence or reduction of healthcare services in rural communities outside Edmonton, where those living in Indigenous communities are particularly hard-hit by an unfolding healthcare crisis, participants also felt that XR could be used in rural and remote Alberta to expand access to high-quality training and support without requiring constant travel to city centres.

Consistent with global XR uses where medical providers can “receive real-time guidance from remotely located specialists, giving widespread access to specialized knowledge” and thereby increase provider capability (Morgan, Patel, & Campbell, 2025, p. 2), participants noted that by using XR technology, two or more workers who are geographically distant from each other can collaborate remotely.

Participants noted that developing real-time support tools could allow frontline providers to consult with experts during patient care, bridging the gap between remote and urban healthcare settings. One participant linked this to the broader issue of workforce retention, explaining that “regional staff often leave for cities to

access information, partners, colleagues, and new skills.” They emphasized that XR could help “support that connection and training to keep our healthcare staff in the rural and remote space.”

Moreover, some participants noted that if they could only develop one XR tool for healthcare, it would be “any tool that enabled general frontline healthcare workers to interact with experts in real time with patients.”

Similarly, participants noted that XR could support the growth of clinician-to-patient interaction in the comfort of the patient’s home. Consistent with global use cases that found XR can provide interactive and immersive educational content for patients, enhancing their understanding of conditions and treatments for better compliance and engagement (Morgan, Patel, and Campbell 2025), participants argued that across sectors, healthcare professionals would benefit from a patient-centred immersive platform that allows workers to experience the healthcare journey from multiple perspectives, patients, families, and care teams. According to participants, this could help uncover disconnects in collaborative care plans and strengthen communication and empathy across professions.

Additionally, participants suggested that improving coordination of care across providers and pathways, during discharge planning and end-of-life care, was where XR could outperform current methods. Suggesting that if they could design just one tool, it would be XR team flow technology, with shared 3D discharge-planning walk-throughs to rehearse handoffs and roles, participants noted that by letting teams visualize the same space and sequence handoffs “in real time,” XR could enable “more precision care planning,” clarifying roles, anticipating barriers at home, and reducing back-and-forth and errors during transitions of care.

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ADOPTION CHALLENGE:

Costs, Capacity, and Culture

The literature shows that while XR technologies play a crucial role in enhancing medical education and training through more effective, efficient, and innovative methods, several challenges continue to hinder their mainstream adoption in healthcare. In the clinical setting, barriers to widespread VR implementation span financial, environmental, technical, and attitudinal domains. Issues identified include security and privacy risks, high costs, connectivity limitations that may constrain use, classification ambiguities, regulatory burdens, usability and user awareness gaps, and design and technical limitations (Khan et al. 2024).

Despite the general excitement surrounding the potential of XR in healthcare, and the recognition that XR technologies could address many healthcare challenges more effectively than current methods, participants also highlighted several significant barriers to widespread adoption of XR in Edmonton’s healthcare sector.

Participants repeatedly framed cost as a central barrier, arguing that “cost is a constant concern from the tech perspective, it is often the main driver of disengagement.” For participants, cost considerations, including the initial investment in XR technology, ongoing maintenance, and training for healthcare personnel, must be weighed against potential benefits. Beyond the initial high upfront costs necessary for hardware and software, participants noted the significance of the ongoing costs of licensing, hosting, device refresh, educator time, and integration support. Moreover, sustained maintenance and support are also essential to ensure continued functionality, and participants emphasized that without existing IT to manage and deploy potentially hundreds of headsets, the hidden support and maintenance costs balloon, potentially undercutting any expected ROI. While some saw XR as potentially economical, calling it “a more affordable option to provide training methods” especially considering the reality of funding constraints, most participants emphasized that the reality of today’s funding patterns make it unrealistic to continue to run XR after a pilot ends.

Participants were blunt about what they understood as Edmonton’s “pilot problem.”

The problem, sometimes called “pilotitis,” is increasingly common across healthcare systems and refers to the perceived tendency of launching numerous small-scale and shortlived pilot projects without committing to or scaling pilots to full implementation (Blackwood 2025). Echoing Blackwood’s (2025) sentiment that “everyone is happy to trial your product with support from grant funders, but moving from proof-of-concept to procurement can feel like hitting a brick wall,” participants argued that there is always money to start, with funding models designed to pursue new or innovative XR but not to sustain the knowledge mobilization or integration of XR in various healthcare settings.

As one participant noted, there is “no shortage of pilot funding … but in terms of the maintenance and … continuing what you’ve started,” resources dry up. They noted that sustaining what works requires funding beyond the trial phase.

Recounting several instances where promising XR projects struggled (or failed) to move from trial to standard practice, participants reasoned that to fully integrate XR into healthcare settings, pilots must come with a defined path, funding, and metrics to move into routine practice. Consistent with a growing body of literature that finds real and prominent risk that the potential to improve healthcare with digital medicine technologies will become a missed opportunity, leaving the field fragmented into isolated pilot projects that lack the scale and cohesion required to generate

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meaningful evidence (Egermark et al. 2022), participants felt that Edmonton could only move from a system of scattered pilots to systemwide adoption by treating immersive tech as core infrastructure rather than simply a side project. For participants, practical fixes included leveraging hospital foundations and innovation funds to carry hosting, content updates, and device refresh.

Additionally, participants saw Edmonton’s XR activity as energetic but fragmented, with many small pilots running in parallel with different hardware, content, workflows, and evaluation methods, which they viewed as a significant barrier to adoption and scale. According to participants, this fragmentation of pilots leads to duplicated effort, uneven quality, and limited reuse with teams forced to “reinvent the wheel” for procurement, hosting, facilitation, and maintenance at every site.

Participants noted that a shared infrastructure model could be implemented across all sites, with a coordinating team to run shared hubs and repositories preventing duplication and making high-quality scenarios reusable across facilities. Also, arguing that the lack of common standards (for scenarios, data capture, debriefs, privacy, and safety) makes it hard to compare results or scale what works, participants recommended “a common centre or space … used by multiple facilities, with pooled device fleets, hosting, support staff, and a catalogue of vetted simulations that educators can drop into courses.” Others pointed to national models and suggested that “It would be nice to see … on the immersive side … hosted at the national level … funded…” to standardize development, delivery, and evaluation.

Beyond funding that’s often confined to pilot projects, participants said cost pressures are compounded by executives’ demands for hard, practice-level evidence before they will commit operating dollars. Participants noted that procurement decisions are driven by risk management, evidence requirements, and budget limitations, meaning that even when clinicians are supportive, organizations may still hesitate to adopt innovations unless they clearly fit with local priorities, funding structures, and strategic goals.

Noting that the ability of new XR technologies to progress in Edmonton’s healthcare settings

hinges on visible sponsorship at the executive level, participants said, “There has to be at least one champion at the executive level; without that, you won’t get traction.” Despite this, many executives lack digital fluency, “don’t understand the opportunity that could be had here,” and ask, “How do you share the success metrics or what is working and the value it’s going to create …?”

This creates a high bar for evidence without a matching budget for sustained implementation and evaluation.

Participants noted that mindsets or attitudes, both individual (comfort with change) and organizational (risk culture), often act as significant barriers to adoption. This is consistent with previous studies that found that it can be difficult to change the behaviours of clinicians and healthcare organizations that perceive innovation as potentially risky, particularly when it might affect patient outcomes or carry ethical, professional, social, or financial implications (Huang, Blaschke, and Lucas 2017; Phalkey et al.

2015). Participants observed that this caution sometimes translates into resistance toward emerging technologies, especially those, such as information or immersive systems, that fall outside their established areas of expertise.

In line with previous research, which shows that limited knowledge among healthcare professionals can hinder the adoption of new technologies, participants noted (Schreiter et al. 2025), “A lot of the folks that are deciding on funding don’t have a lot of tech literacy and don’t understand the opportunity …”

Arguing that “cultural shifts start from the top,” participants said the mindset challenge is reinforced by organizational attitudes, riskaverse corporate cultures, status-quo thinking, and a “gimmick” perception, often dismissing game technology as childish and not to be taken seriously, combined with slow approvals and compliance questions (such as “Who’s responsible … accountable … liable?”) to stall deployments. Participants agreed that there isn’t a clear, agreed-upon way to evaluate XR’s overall benefits and outcomes and, that without a shared framework, XR stays peripheral instead of becoming a strategic priority, even though “we have so many new healthcare providers that could benefit.” According to participants, the challenge is demonstrating concrete use cases

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and workforce value (e.g., time to competence, safer handoffs, reduced turnover) in a way leaders trust, so funding and adoption can follow.

Correspondingly, participants also described a lack of standard, transparent, and published routes for XR in Edmonton’s healthcare sector as a significant barrier to implementation. According to participants, access to new XR technologies often depends on relationships, not clear pathways. Overall, participants described a “who you know” pattern for getting XR into the system, with access often hinging on existing networks, rather than a clear process. As a potential solution, participants urged more transparent, system-level pathways so that access doesn’t depend on relationships.

To overcome this barrier, participants recommended a focused, plain-English approach to building readiness. They suggested education programming that could teach what “digital transformation” actually means in healthcare, the basic XR interface fluency for patient-facing staff (using headsets and controllers safely, navigating menus, troubleshooting common issues), provide regular briefings on existing and emerging technologies so teams know what’s available now and what’s coming next, and show concrete, role-specific examples of how immersive tools look in different contexts (such as a dischargeplanning walk-through, a rehab exercise module, or a bedside communication scenario). They argued that this would allow individuals involved in Edmonton’s healthcare settings to see and practise the use cases that matter to them.

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Upskilling

As XR technologies create new career opportunities and transform existing roles, educators, employers, and policymakers must act now to ensure learners and workers are equipped with the skills needed to succeed (Mathew and Pillai 2020). This includes targeted upskilling and training to meet the demands of a rapidly changing workforce. Upskilling is the process of refining existing skills or learning new skills (Li 2024). According to participants, upskilling across the entire healthcare ecosystem, including clinicians, educators, IT, and developers, is essential for XR to move from pilot to practice, enabling clinicians to use XR tools confidently as part of everyday care.

For healthcare professionals

With clinician and educator digital literacy, dedicated facilitation, and fit-to-workflow design frequently cited as adoption levers (Safi, Thiessen, and Schmailzl 2018), participants pointed to several skills and roles that clinicians will need to either refine or develop as XR becomes more routine in Edmonton’s healthcare sector. Noting that “all healthcare providers will need support, though each provider group may have different needs,” participants said, “we would need to significantly up-skill the current facilitators … to get them up to speed with virtual reality.” Participants indicated that virtual health tech fluency is essential so bedside staff understand how XR slots into real workflows.

Participants pointed to Virtual Health Hub (VHH)2 in Saskatchewan as a perfect example of a training facility. Participants also felt that unit educators, charge nurses, and clinical leads will need to increase their comfort working with ambiguity and change-leadership capacity to effectively navigate and guide through periods of significant transformation that will necessarily come with XR becoming more commonplace in healthcare. Participants also noted that to keep training patient- and family-centred, teams should build human-centred design skills to co-create scenarios with end users.

They also indicated that combining roles, like content auditor/manager to “ensure content is up to date with best practice” and brokers/ tech educators “to bridge the gap to leaders / health educators and end users,” will become necessary in Edmonton’s healthcare sector.

For immersive tech professionals

For the participants, immersive tech professionals will also need upskilling as XR becomes more routine. Participants emphasized that XR vendors and builders will need deeper, more robust healthcare-aware skill sets to move from demos and pilots to deployable tools and imagine products that are actually useful. Arguing that there can be “too much ‘snake oil’ in the industry, and not enough customer understanding,” participants felt that core software engineering remains “essential,” but teams must pair it with problem discovery to ensure designs fit with clinical realities, scope of practice, team roles, infection control, electronic health records / IT constraints, and regulatory rules. Accordingly, participants stressed that a priority role is a VR/XR content developer, who blends learning design or a health background with technical knowledge to build a scalable curriculum. This profile can translate competencies into assessable

2 An Indigenous-led program delivering clinical services to northern and rural communities entirely remotely from a centralized, purposebuilt facility at Whitecap Dakota First Nation. VHH uses virtual-care platforms, XR-enabled training environments, AI tools, and remotepresence robotics integrated with local care teams, so patients are assessed and treated in real time in their home communities. VHH also builds workforce capacity. In partnership with the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT), it is developing a virtual care assistant applied certificate program to train staff, primarily Indigenous learners, in virtual-care operations, including hands-on XR modules for device use, remote workflows, and patient support. The aim is to increase the number of providers trained to deliver virtual services (with growth in Indigenous providers), improve access for Indigenous/remote/rural patients, and reduce system costs by treating patients locally.

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scenarios and align with educator needs and version content as guidelines change.

Participants noted that specialists in simulation testing of medical devices and 3D design and visualization are needed to quickly create, validate, and revise prototypes with clinicians.

They also emphasized the importance of smart hospital and digital-twin designers who can create pre-built walk-throughs and operational simulations to reduce risks related to space, equipment, and process decisions. Finally, participants expressed that teams would benefit from having AI and agent design skills to develop realistic non-player standardized patients, analytics for debriefs, and adaptable scenarios that prioritize clinical safety, privacy, and bias controls.

For policy, regulatory, procurement, and education organizations

For policy, regulatory, procurement, and education organizations, participants said the essential skills and roles centre around making XR usable at scale.

Participants emphasized the need for XRaware policymaking to create clear and robust implementation policies for XR use. Participants noted the need for policies around when and where XR is used, how it fits workflows, data governance, privacy, and safety. They further noted the need for a policy that requires datajustice practices (bias testing/mitigation for analytics and AI non-player characters [NPCs]) in all XR deployments and defines when simulation can replace or supplement clinical hours, and how those hours are counted and audited.

In terms of regulation, participants urged collaboration with professional colleges to clarify the scope, accountability, and liability for XR-supported training and care activities. They

recommended pre-agreed approval pathways that cover privacy, cybersecurity, and clinical safety to ensure projects don’t restart reviews at every site. They also asked regulators to publish evidence expectations (e.g., time to competence, handoff quality, error reduction) so teams know what outcomes to measure and how to demonstrate value.

Regarding procurement, participants stressed the importance of pathways designed for XR, with roles aimed at implementing it in healthcare and for individuals. They suggested having standing offers or master agreements for headsets, content, hosting, and support.

This would help speed up purchasing and prevent the need to restart due diligence every time. They also called for roles focused on implementation with enough autonomy to make procurement decisions, even though they acknowledged that as of today, this is “a pipe dream.” Finally, they stressed including full lifecycle costs, including device management, hosting/licensing, content updates, and facilitation time, in business cases and contracts, not just pilot costs.

For education, participants mentioned that programs need significant improvement to close a gap. There isn’t enough XR training in schools. Curricula should be developed to devote more time and effort to it. They recommended training instructors and simulation facilitators to use XR as an instructional tool. They suggested covering facilitation, debriefing, and scenario authoring, grounded in learning theory so modules drive learning. They also called for dedicated teams that combine instructional designers, XR content developers, and content auditors to create and maintain curriculum-ready simulations. Finally, they urged building basic XR interface fluency into standard curricula that includes safe device use, navigation, and troubleshooting for learners and clinicians.

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How Can Edmonton Position Itself as a Leader in Preparing the Future Healthcare and Tech Workforce?

As technology continues to transform the healthcare landscape and expand approaches to health and wellness beyond traditional models, participants across focus groups agreed that Edmonton is uniquely positioned to become a national leader in developing the healthcare and technology workforce of the future, if XR is made a strategic priority.

To achieve this, participants stressed the importance of a coordinated, long-term strategy that unites healthcare organizations, post-secondary institutions, and technology providers around a common vision for innovation and training excellence.

Across healthcare sectors, participants argued that building and supporting initiatives could serve as a virtual innovation hub for Canada.

Hosting interactive workshops and “lunch and learn” sessions for educators, HR teams, and system leaders can raise awareness about the practical value and applications of XR in healthcare training. Participants argued that making these initiatives a priority in workforce development will ensure ongoing investment and use throughout the health system.

They also argued that post-secondary institutions need funding and power to develop, test, and implement innovative training programs that incorporate XR and other immersive tools into curricula.

Participants noted that collaboration between education and healthcare could help create baseline indicators of training quality, ensuring measurable and replicable outcomes.

Eventually, they believed these efforts should connect to a wider investment strategy that supports the integration of new technologies in healthcare education and practice.

To compete globally, participants believed that local technology providers need support to scale solutions beyond Alberta while ensuring their products address real and evolving healthcare needs and wants. According to

participants, strengthening partnerships between XR developers and healthcare educators will lead to the co-design of scalable, evidence-based tools that enhance learning and workforce readiness.

Overall, participants believed these actions could position Edmonton as a centre of excellence in healthcare innovation—a place where interdisciplinary collaboration fosters skill development, applied research, and workforce transformation.

Building Edmonton’s health and tech talent advantage

Both the relevant literature and the participants noted that for Edmonton to advance XR in healthcare from isolated pilots to routine use, several things need to happen. First, systems must address pilotitis by replacing one-off grants with ongoing funding and clear adoption plans linked to service outcomes and costs.

Participants argued that Edmonton must move beyond trials. They emphasized the need for a defined strategy and a team that understands their contributions.

They stressed that purchasers and implementers need shared evidence standards, clear and comparable measures (such as time to competence, error reduction, and cost offsets), and reporting guidance. This will help decisionmakers evaluate value and spread effective solutions. They also called for a shared backbone instead of each site working independently. This

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would involve creating “a common centre or space” for multiple facilities to share devices, a scenario repository, and evaluation support, as well as convening partners.

To build understanding and cooperation, participants suggested hosting regular meetings for leaders and educators, such as “lunch and learns” and hands-on demonstrations. This way, decision-makers can see real value and pathways for use. As one participant stated, Edmonton must “raise awareness of the small wins … the value that it’s creating,” because leaders still question, “How do you share the success metrics or what is working and the value it’s gonna create?”

For quicker build-validate cycles, several participants suggested adopting lightweight innovation formats that fit healthcare realities.

“Host hackathons to leverage design sprints and the fast development benefits of the tech industry.” Participants highlighted the potential

to collaborate with hospital foundations to support hosting, updates, and device refresh.

Finally, to compete beyond Alberta, industry voices indicated that local firms must deliver scalable and general products. As one participant noted, “We are outcompeted by much more sophisticated companies with more general use and scalable solutions.” The participant proposed that a hub can assist by publishing real clinical problem statements, aligning evidence expectations, and creating procurement pathways. This way, once a tool is validated, it can scale across facilities.

In summary, participants believed that with executive sponsorship, a shared hub, regular leader education, educator training and repositories, foundation-backed support, faster validation cycles, and a focus on scaling, Edmonton can credibly establish itself as a national leader in preparing the future healthcare and tech workforce.

Conclusion

Edmonton can move immersive technologies in healthcare from promising pilots to sustainable practice by treating XR as core infrastructure, aligning long-term funding and governance with clear evidence standards and building shared hubs that pool devices, content, and evaluation capacity across sites. Coordinated leadership, including executive champions and XR-aware policymakers, is essential to overcome pilotitis, fragmented efforts, and risk-averse cultures, while targeted upskilling for clinicians, educators, IT teams, vendors, and regulators can ensure that immersive tools fit real workflows and advance patient-centred, equitable care.

By investing in curriculum-ready simulations, XR interface fluency, and dedicated implementation roles, and by creating transparent procurement and approval pathways that account for full lifecycle costs, Edmonton can position itself as a national centre of excellence in immersive healthcare innovation, workforce development, and industry growth.

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Appendix A: Methodology

This study employed two virtual focus groups using an online collaborative whiteboard platform to gather qualitative insights from participants across healthcare, technology, research, policy, and post-secondary education sectors.

In total, 49 participants took part in these virtual sessions.

The focus group method was selected as it allows for the collection of in-depth qualitative data through group interaction on a topic determined by the researcher (Morgan 1997).

Compared to other qualitative data collection techniques, such as semi-structured individual interviews, focus groups enable participants to elaborate on and respond to each other’s ideas, often producing a richer and more dynamic understanding of the subject matter (Halliday et al. 2021).

Following best practices for online qualitative research, the sessions were conducted in a virtual environment to support geographically diverse participation and enable realtime collaboration (Poliandri et al. 2023).

Participants engaged through a shared digital whiteboard, where they posted written responses to discussion prompts, commented on others’ contributions, and visually organized emerging thoughts and ideas. This interactive approach allowed participants to co-construct meaning and build on collective insights.

Each focus group was moderated by an experienced facilitator who guided discussion using a prepared list of open-ended questions. By using open-ended questions, with participants encouraged to expand on their own experiences, this study explored participants’ perspectives on the current and potential applications of immersive technologies in healthcare. Additionally, questions focused on opportunities, barriers, and workforce implications in Edmonton’s healthcare settings. The questions encouraged discussion around real-world use cases, challenges to adoption, and the skills and collaborations needed to support the growth of immersive technology in the healthcare sector.

Each session lasted approximately 60 minutes, and discussions were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The qualitative data were analyzed thematically to identify common themes, divergent viewpoints, and actionable insights regarding immersive technology adoption in healthcare.

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