113: Digital Twin-Based Metaverse Clinical Trial Space: From Making Clinical Trials More Accessible to Using It as a New Clinical Trial Tool

Statement of Purpose: Clinical trials are essential for determining the best treatment strategies and require efforts from various fields from the beginning to the end of the study. Due to the non-contact lifestyle caused by COVID-19, various efforts are underway to explore new approaches. From the perspective of the clinical trial site, novel strategies to improve recruitment, enrollment and retention of clinical trial subjects are required. A digital twin of a clinical trial site has been created by combining currently highlighted technologies. This study aimed to assess the practicality of the digital twin as an educational platform for everyone in clinical trials.

Description of Methods & Materials: The digital twin of the clinical research space of Jeonbuk Natl Univ Hosp was created using ZEP, a metaverse platform that can be easily accessed from both mobile and PC. The information in each space is provided in various ways such as text, images and videos. Utilizing ZEP’s basic features, spaces for one-on-one and one-to-many real-time interviews were made, and a guestbook where visitors including the general public, research subjects and researchers, could freely leave their opinions was set. All of the clinical trial introduction videos uploaded in the virtual space were recorded by meta-humans acting based on scripts received from chatGPT. The main character was completed by scanning the face of a site’s real medical director using a reality scan app and then undergoing detailed modifications in the meta-human creator. The background of the video is a virtual clinical trial space previously built with Unreal Engine 5, and the character's facial expressions were created using the Live Link Face app.

Data & Results: A virtual clinical trial space for the outpatient clinic, hospitalization room, specimen processing room, electrocardiogram room and the conference room where the initial meeting is mainly held, was completed. Through this space, individuals can access information without the constraints of time and place, and real-time communication between groups is possible without physical travel. Devices such as centrifuges, freezers and sphygmomanometers, which are actually used during the trial, have images of the actual calibration reports attached to them, and the reports are available to anyone with access to the objects. For participants with additional permissions, a sharing page was linked to download the documents.

Interpretation, Conclusion or Significance: Anyone around the world can search for and access this virtual clinical trial space. This can be used in a variety of ways depending on the users. First, access to the clinical trial itself can be increased for those who have never participated in a clinical trial. Second, for clinical trial participants, it can be used as a continuous feedback space to increase adaptability and prevent dropout. Third, it can be used as a survey and monitoring tool for internal and external researchers, and as a training ground for prospective researchers. It is also expected to be used as a space to realize concepts such as distributed clinical trials or dynamic consent acquisition. Further research is planned to see if the virtual center experience can actually bring about positive changes in perceptions of clinical trials.

Disclosures: