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Evaluating the Acceptability of AI-Personalized Virtual Reality Picture Books for Hospitalized Pediatric Patients
Sponsor: Stanford University
Summary
Hospitalization strips pediatric patients of the environments, objects, and people that shape their daily lives. Hospitalized pediatric patients routinely experience painful procedures, psychological distress, boredom, and a disorienting loss of personal identity. These experiences measurably worsen anxiety, reduce cooperation with care, and diminish the quality of the inpatient experience for both patients and families. Immersive digital interventions, including VR and tablet-based experiences, have emerged as a promising class of tools for addressing these challenges. Prior studies from The Stanford Chariot Program have demonstrated that digitally delivered, patient-centered experiences can meaningfully reduce procedural anxiety and improve engagement in hospitalized children. Yet, an important limitation persists in these technologies - current digital interventions largely remain in one-size-fits-all formats. Every child receives the same content, regardless of who they are, what they love, or what makes them feel at home in the world. This design limits therapeutic relevance, constrains engagement, and represents a missed opportunity to engage children, reduce anxiety, and enhance their quality of life during hospital stays.
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
9 Years - 17 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
15
Start Date
2026-09-01
Completion Date
2027-08-31
Last Updated
2026-08-19
Healthy Volunteers
No
Conditions
Interventions
LLM-audiobook
Develop and refine a two-stage personalization LLM pipeline: (1) a structured brief interview template and (2) an LLM prompt chain for content generation. The interview instrument will be a structured guide (\~20 minutes) capturing details about the child's background, interests, and aspirations. All information collected during the interview will be deidentified prior to being passed into the LLM. Content Generation: Deidentified interview responses will be input to a standardized LLM prompt pipeline. The pipeline generates a structured patient profile that interprets the participant's interests, personality, and preferences, then uses that profile to produce a personalized narrative, formatted as a picture book story. AI voice synthesis will generate an audio narration of the story. AI image generation tools will produce a set of 6-10 accompanying illustrations. The final product - a synchronized audio picture book - will be delivered via VR headset at bedside.