Using Digital Puppetry to Prepare Physicians to Address Non-suicidal Self-injury Among Teens

Research has shown that adolescents that engage in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) are at an increased risk of suicidal behavior. Primary care providers can help identify NSSI behaviors and assess suicide risk; however, many physicians report feeling underprepared to do so in a clinical environment. Thus, this simulated training experience was built to create an authentic practice interview environment. Two adolescent cases have been modeled using avatars and a digital puppetry system that allows for complex and nuanced non-verbal behavior. After several iterations, a combination of gesture based puppetry, real-time head tracking, and triggered automated animation sequences was found to provide suitable control to create subtle and appropriate non-verbal behaviors in the context of the interview. Data is currently being gathered from pilot groups of medical residents and physicians to evaluate the authenticity of the simulated environment and to explore whether this simulated interview training changes physician behavior in a way that may help prevent adolescent suicide.