ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Digital Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1554394
Developing Interactive VR-Based Digital Therapeutics for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Structured Framework for the Digital Transformation Integrating Gamification and Multimodal Arts
Provisionally accepted
Kim Hyungsook1,2
Choi Yoonyoung1,3*- 1HY Digital Healthcare Center, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 2Department of Data Science, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 3Digital Integrative Arts Therapy Association, Seeoul, Republic of Korea
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Introduction: Digital therapeutics (DTx) require structured methodologies to translate evidencebased psychotherapy into immersive digital formats. This study proposes a practical framework for digitally transforming Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) into an interactive virtual reality (VR) system for treating depression.Methods: DTx-ACT is an interactive VR-based system that delivers ACT for depression. It was developed through five phases: preliminary research, design, development, advancement, and commercialization. The ACT protocol was modularized using the Session Structured System (SSS) model into VR environments. Gamification and multimodal arts strategies were integrated to enhance engagement. Evaluation metrics were identified for clinical and interaction data.The final system consists of five immersive VR sessions (6-12 minutes each), incorporating ACT metaphors, interactive tasks, and sensory feedback. Three core components were derived to guide the digital transformation: an evidence-based therapeutic protocol, interactive VR elements (including gamification and multimodal arts-based guidance), and a data-driven evaluation framework. Evaluation metrics were validated through a pilot study and integrated into a scalable implementation model. The system captures both clinical outcomes and real-time behavioral and sensor-based indicators.Discussion: Based on this development process, we define a practical framework for designing interactive VR-based digital therapeutics. This framework bridges clinical structure, creative engagement, and real-time evaluation to support personalized and scalable applications in digital mental healthcare. It contributes to standardizing the digital transformation of evidence-based therapy and offers a transferable model for future therapeutic content development.
Keywords: Digital Therapeutics (DTx), interactive VR, digital transformation, Acceptance and commitment therapy (act), multimodal arts guidance, Gamification, Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Received: 06 Jan 2025; Accepted: 22 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hyungsook and Yoonyoung. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Choi Yoonyoung, HY Digital Healthcare Center, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.