Workforce Insights for the Future of Immersive Healthcare

Workforce Insights for the Future of Immersive Healthcare

What skills, training, and workforce supports will be needed as immersive technologies become more common in healthcare?

To help answer that question, ELIXR Simulations, with support from the Government of Alberta's Labour Market Partnerships (LMP) program, partnered with the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) to explore the intersection of immersive technology and healthcare in Alberta.

Drawing on insights from healthcare professionals, educators, researchers, technology developers, policymakers, and industry partners, this report examines the current and future role of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) in healthcare.

Immersive Medicine: The Transformative Potential of Immersive Technologies in Edmonton's Healthcare System explores how immersive technologies are being used in healthcare today, identifies opportunities and barriers to broader adoption, and highlights the workforce development strategies needed to support a growing immersive healthcare ecosystem.

Who This Resource Is For

This resource is intended for healthcare leaders, educators, policymakers, technology developers, employers, researchers, and others interested in the future of immersive healthcare.

Explore the key findings below, or download the full report to learn more.

Why This Research Matters

Immersive technologies are no longer only an emerging idea in healthcare. Across Edmonton and beyond, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) are already being explored and applied to support healthcare education, workforce training, rehabilitation, patient care, and remote service delivery.

Participants pointed to applications that are already showing value, including empathy and bias-awareness training, shared 3D care planning, digital-twin walkthroughs that help teams plan clinical spaces, and repeatable skills practice that allows learners to build confidence and receive feedback in a safe environment.

The research also highlighted meaningful opportunities to build on this momentum. Participants saw potential for immersive technologies to expand access to training for rural and remote communities, support the onboarding of internationally educated healthcare professionals, and make learning opportunities more flexible and available on demand.

At the same time, realizing this potential will require more than strong technology. Most participants emphasized that current funding patterns can make it difficult to sustain XR initiatives after a pilot ends, particularly when ongoing costs such as licensing, hosting, device refresh, educator time, and technical support are not built into operational budgets.

This research brings together those insights to help healthcare leaders, educators, policymakers, and technology developers better understand where immersive technologies are already creating value, where the strongest opportunities for growth exist, and what workforce, implementation, and long-term supports will be needed to move the sector forward.

Explore the full findings, recommendations, and workforce insights in the Immersive Medicine report.

Key Themes from the Report 

Immersive technology is already creating value in healthcare.

Immersive technology is already being used to support clinical education, workforce training, rehabilitation, patient education, and care planning. Participants pointed to practical applications including virtual simulations that allow learners to practise clinical scenarios and receive feedback in a safe environment, shared 3D spaces that support care planning and team communication, and digital-twin walkthroughs that help teams test and plan clinical spaces before they are built.

These examples show how XR can complement existing healthcare and education approaches by creating repeatable, hands-on learning experiences, helping teams visualize complex information, and supporting more confident decision-making.

Workforce development will play a critical role in future adoption.

As immersive technologies become more integrated into healthcare environments, organizations will need professionals with both technical and healthcare-specific expertise. Participants emphasized the importance of upskilling healthcare professionals, simulation facilitators, educators, and technology developers in areas such as XR facilitation, debriefing, learning design, and healthcare workflow integration.

The report also highlights opportunities to create more intentional pathways into the sector. This includes supporting internationally educated healthcare professionals through immersive onboarding experiences, building familiarity with Canadian healthcare contexts, communication standards, and cultural safety, while also helping learners and professionals develop the confidence to use immersive tools as part of everyday practice.

Building this workforce capacity will be essential to ensuring immersive technologies are not treated as optional add-ons, but can be implemented thoughtfully, sustained over time, and used to support meaningful outcomes across healthcare.

The challenge isn't only technology.

While interest in immersive technologies continues to grow, participants repeatedly emphasized that successful adoption depends on more than having the right hardware or software. Cost, operational capacity, procurement processes, and long-term sustainability all shape whether an immersive solution can move beyond a promising pilot.

Many participants pointed to the challenge of sustaining initiatives once initial project funding ends. Ongoing needs such as licensing, hosting, device management and refresh, technical support, content updates, and educator time must be considered from the outset if organizations hope to integrate immersive tools into everyday practice.

The report highlights the importance of creating clearer implementation pathways that help organizations evaluate, adopt, and sustain solutions that are already demonstrating value. This includes building stronger evidence around outcomes, supporting leadership buy-in, and creating shared approaches that reduce duplication and make it easier to scale what works.

Edmonton has a unique opportunity to lead.

Edmonton is home to a strong network of healthcare institutions, post-secondary programs, researchers, innovators, and technology companies. The research highlighted the value of bringing these strengths together more intentionally to support the responsible growth of immersive healthcare.

Participants identified opportunities for stronger collaboration across healthcare, education, government, and industry, including shared learning opportunities, clearer pathways for testing and adoption, and infrastructure that could help organizations build on one another’s work rather than starting from scratch.

By investing in workforce development, supporting knowledge-sharing, and creating more coordinated approaches to implementation, Edmonton has the potential to build on its existing strengths and strengthen its position as a leader in immersive healthcare innovation. This kind of ecosystem-wide collaboration can help ensure that promising tools, research, and expertise are not developed in isolation, but shared in ways that build capacity across the sector.

Read the Full Report

The Immersive Medicine report offers a deeper look at the opportunities, workforce needs, barriers, and recommendations shaping the future of immersive healthcare in Edmonton and beyond.

Whether you are a healthcare professional, educator, policymaker, researcher, technology developer, employer, or simply interested in the future of healthcare innovation, we invite you to explore the full findings.

Download the full report here.

Funding Acknowledgement

This project was supported through Alberta's Labour Market Partnerships (LMP) program, which supports collaborative initiatives that strengthen labour market information, workforce planning, and industry development in Alberta.

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

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Project Partner

This report was developed in partnership with the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC). Through this collaboration, ICTC led the research and development of the Immersive Medicine report, drawing on insights from healthcare, education, government, and industry stakeholders across the Edmonton region.