Embodied Empathy: Rethinking VR Films as Qualitative Material in Medical Humanities

Introduction:

In medical humanities research, Virtual Reality (VR) has been used as supplementary teaching tools for medical students rather than first-hand qualitative material. Medical education uses VR to help students understand the surgical procedures or pharmacokinetic processes in a vivid environment. However, immersive, interactive and embodied features in VR films (especially narrative VR films) could provide a unique epistemological perspective for illness experiences and care settings.

Goals and Methods:

This study aims to develop a new methodological framework that takes VR films as primary qualitative data in medical humanities research. This study is based on virtual phenomenology and takes three VR films as cases from different VR formats (including 360 cinematic and interactive). Each film is investigated through phenomenological reflection, focusing on sensory, emotional, and bodily dimensions of immersion. The analysis includes factors of interaction, immersion, embodiment and other film-related factors like narrative sound design and mise-en-scene. Using spatial and interactional segmentation, the study extracts qualitative “experience units” (regions, transitions, and decision points) across three VR films.

Results:

This research finds that VR films demonstrate the doctor-patient relationship, physical and psychological vulnerability, and nursing practices that are often hard to detect in traditional films. It shows embodied empathy is produced by (1) bodily positioning, (2) sensory orientation, and (3) bounded agency. The 360° cinematic format situates the viewer as an empathetic witness, whereas the interactive format provides limited agency, enabling users to navigate moral tension and decision-making within care narratives.

Conclusion:

This study proposes a new direction that the analysis of VR films and its interactive, immersive and embodied features could inform reflective medical education. By conceptualizing VR films as first-hand qualitative material, this study expands the methodological scope of medical humanities, connecting narrative analysis, virtual ethnography and digital media research.