--- title: "Featured VR case studies from hospitals to local government" description: "Engagements that show the range: a hospital culture pilot, a peer-reviewed nurse leadership program, a workplace study and a community disability project." canonical: https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/featured --- [Our Work](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work) / [Case Studies](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies) # Featured case studies Engagements that show the range: a hospital culture pilot, a peer-reviewed nurse leadership program, a peer-reviewed workplace study and a community program still running today. [Download the Mater case study PDF](https://peopletechrevolution.com/uploads/docs/people-tech-revolution-mater-immersive-learning-pilot-case-study.pdf) [Download the Cook It! case study PDF](https://peopletechrevolution.com/uploads/docs/people-tech-revolution-cook-it-food-education-case-study.pdf) [Download the Google research paper PDF](https://peopletechrevolution.com/uploads/docs/people-tech-revolution-google-vr-inclusion-training-chi-2024.pdf) Request access to the full Mayo Clinic case study Two nurses face each other on the ward. ## Hard conversations, in the rooms they happen in A hospital break room, a nursing corridor, an office at Google and a council counter. Each scene began with an exchange someone wished had gone differently, and each program was measured by the people who ran it. Mater Education ## Speaking with Good Judgement Mater's feedback and speaking-up program, rebuilt in VR inside recreations of its own hospital rooms. Mirroring a nurse's hands inside the build. ### A culture program moved into the headset Engagement in the face-to-face delivery was waning. PTR built a branched VR experience with Mater Education, its team leads and the Centre for Medical Simulation at Harvard. It was delivered to more than 60 participants across Mater campuses, and Mater's facilitators were trained to run it themselves. [Read the Mater Education case study](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/mater-speaking-with-good-judgement) A nurse tries the headset beside a colleague. ### What Mater measured Mater Education evaluated the pilot with the staff who took it. These are its figures. 93% said they enjoyed the experience 90% reported an increase in their concentration 77% found the VR training more engaging than face to face 96% wanted more VR-based learning in future programs Figures as reported by Mater Education following its program evaluation. [Mater Education, immersive learning pilot closure report, 2025](https://peopletechrevolution.com/uploads/docs/people-tech-revolution-mater-immersive-learning-pilot-case-study.pdf) Mayo Clinic ## A Day In a Lifetime Short VR scenarios drawn from Mayo Clinic nurses' own experiences of bias, racism and allyship, with a facilitated debrief after each one. Hands raised to a character in the ward. ### Measured twice, and the gains held Built by People Tech Revolution and co-designed with Mayo Clinic nursing staff, the series reached more than 1,100 nurse and social worker leaders across Mayo Clinic campuses. Two peer-reviewed papers reported gains in empathy and in willingness to act as an upstander, with most gains still present months later. [Read the controlled trial](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117648). [Read the Mayo Clinic case study](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/mayo-clinic-a-day-in-a-lifetime) ### The scenes Mayo Clinic leaders stepped into A corridor where a colleague has looked away, a patient who speaks in his own time, a young man in a support conversation. A nurse leader decides whether to speak up. A patient speaks from his hospital bed. A support worker talks with a young man. > "It's not just about seeing a different perspective - it's about feeling it. That's where real change begins." Simon Lowe CEO, People Tech Revolution. [Forbes, June 2025](https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaheenajanjuhajivrajeurope/2025/06/13/inside-the-leaders-mind-how-vr-training-gets-below-the-surface/) Google ## VR DEI training Four VR scenarios built from real incidents at Google, co-designed with its DEI team, and written up in a peer-reviewed CHI paper. A headset session in an open-plan office. ### Two perspectives on one incident PTR co-founder Leonie Sanderson co-designed the scenarios with Google's DEI volunteers, so trainees stand inside a difficult workplace situation from two sides. In the [CHI 2024 study](https://peopletechrevolution.com/uploads/docs/people-tech-revolution-google-vr-inclusion-training-chi-2024.pdf), 91% of testers rated the scenarios realistic, the first cohort's average satisfaction was 4.7 out of 5, and all but one rated the training better than Google's standard DEI training. [Read the Google case study](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/google-vr-dei-training) ### Inside the Google scenarios A hybrid meeting, a reply to choose in a meeting room, two colleagues in the lunch area. A meeting table, one colleague in the headset. Choosing a reply partway through a meeting. A kitchen conversation, and a choice to make. Central Coast Council ## Raising awareness of disability A VR experience co-designed with the Council's Access and Inclusion Reference Group, delivered more than 200 times across the community. A participant on a beachside terrace, arms wide. ### The beach and the shopping centre, from a wheelchair The Council wanted the wider community, not only its staff, to understand what people with a disability face at the beach and in the local shopping centre. The program is now part of teacher training, council staff training and CSIRO-facilitated sessions, and it is PTR's most sustained community-facing work. [Read the Central Coast Council case study](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/central-coast-council-disability-awareness) ### The moments in the Central Coast build Guide markers on the sand, a participant laughing mid-scenario, a carer at the open car door. Guide markers on the sand around a walker. A facilitator crouches beside a participant mid-scenario. A carer waits at the open car door. ## Where next Each sector hub holds the studies from one field, and the research page holds the peer-reviewed detail. [Healthcare and Medical. Mater Education and Mayo Clinic, with their published figures. Bedside, corridor and staff room.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/healthcare-medical) [Workplace and Enterprise. Google, Metro Trains, Etihad Airways and Cornell University. Inclusion training built from each organisation's own incidents.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/workplace-enterprise) [Government and Public Sector. Central Coast Council, read from the council side. How a public-sector partner reached a whole community.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/government-public-sector) ### And more places to look The aged-care hub, and the peer-reviewed detail behind the figures above. [Aged Care and Disability. The same program, read from the care side. And the care conversations PTR is building next.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/aged-care-disability) [Research and evidence. The peer-reviewed papers behind the Google and Mayo Clinic work. Read in full, with the figures in context.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/research-evidence) See a result here you want for your own team? [Open the contact form](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/featured#contact) Ask our CEO Simon Lowe’s Digital Twin a question