Visibility, impact and collaboration in scientific production on virtual reality in medical education (2017-2022)

Introduction: Virtual reality is a tool that promotes the achievement of various competencies in medical education. The aim of this study was to analyze the visibility, impact, and collaboration in scientific production on virtual reality in medical education. Methods: A bibliometric study consisting of the inclusion of articles indexed in Scopus between 2012 and 2021 based on a search strategy designed with logical operators and MESH terms. Bibliometric indicators were estimated using SciVal and Bibliometrix. Results: Most of the articles were published in first quartile journals (50.6%), with an increase from 2019 to 2021. The terms “Virtual reality” and “Medical education” condensed the highest co-occurrence. Authors Winkler-Schwartz, Del maestro and Konge were the most representative and mainly USA, Germany, UK and Australia were the most dominant countries. Factor analysis showed that dimension one seems to be related to practical experience and simulation, while dimension two to medical education. The Journal of Surgical Education has the most published articles and the one with the highest impact was the International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery. Conclusions: In recent years the scientific literature on virtual reality applied to medical education has increased. In addition, there is an international collaboration network that has increased in different parts of the world. Impact journals are the main journals for the dissemination of this research.