I-VADE

The challenge

Making healthcare safer through immersive training

Healthcare workers face aggression and violence at alarming rates, contributing to injury, burnout and workforce shortages. Yet despite mandatory training, many clinicians report feeling unprepared when confronted with challenging situations in real-world settings.

Recognising this gap, researchers at Edith Cowan University developed I-VADE, an immersive virtual reality training platform that allows healthcare workers to practise responding to aggressive behaviours in realistic clinical scenarios.

Through artificial intelligence, motion capture and virtual reality technology, I-VADE creates safe environments where clinicians can build confidence and de-escalation skills before encountering these situations in practice.

Bridging the gap between theory and practice

Led by Dr Brennen Mills, the team drew on expertise in simulation-based learning and digital health to address a longstanding challenge in healthcare training.

"The goal was never simply to develop a new technology," Brennen said.

"It was about helping healthcare professionals feel safer, more prepared and more confident when dealing with situations that can escalate quickly."

Co-designed alongside healthcare workers and consumers, I-VADE was developed to reflect the complexity and pressure of real clinical environments. The platform enables users to practise difficult interactions repeatedly and safely, creating opportunities to build capability that traditional training methods often struggle to provide.

How I-VADE works

I-VADE places healthcare workers in realistic simulated clinical scenarios where they practise responding to aggression and escalating behaviour.

Users interact with a virtual patient and make decisions throughout the encounter. Their choices influence how the scenario unfolds, allowing them to rehearse communication, risk awareness and de-escalation strategies in a safe, controlled environment.

The experience can be repeated, enabling learners to test different approaches, reflect on outcomes and progressively build confidence. I-VADE is designed to complement existing workplace-violence training by providing immersive, practical rehearsal opportunities that classroom-based learning alone may not replicate.

Our response

Accelerating towards real-world adoption

While the research demonstrated strong potential, the team faced a common challenge: understanding how to move an innovative university-developed technology into healthcare organisations at scale.

Participation in CSIRO's ON Accelerate program proved a catalyst for that transition.

Through the program, the team worked closely with customers and stakeholders to understand procurement pathways, validate market demand and refine a commercial model suited to healthcare systems.

"The ON Accelerate program was transformational for me and the I-VADE team," Brennen said.

"It challenged us to think beyond the technology and focus on what healthcare organisations need in order to adopt and implement a solution successfully."

The experience helped shift the team's focus from proving the technology worked to building a venture capable of delivering impact at scale.

The results

Evidence of impact

Research involving 221 Australian undergraduate nursing students found that a single 20-minute I-VADE session significantly improved participants’ confidence in managing patient aggression.

The study also demonstrated that the platform could be delivered at scale, with groups of 20 students using individual headsets and supported by only around two facilitators.

These findings have been further bolstered with close to 2,000 clinicians and students now experiencing I-VADE across Australia, suggesting I-VADE can provide a practical, repeatable and resource-efficient way to strengthen workforce preparedness across healthcare settings.  

Building capability for growth

As I-VADE progressed towards commercialisation, Brennen further strengthened his skills through the Stanford Graduate School of Business Directors' Consortium, supported by a Stanford Australia Foundation scholarship.

The experience provided insights into governance, leadership and venture growth, while reinforcing the importance of building teams and structures that can sustain long-term impact.

"Stanford reinforced that innovation isn't just about ideas. It's about governance, execution and building teams that can grow and scale," he said.  

Creating safer healthcare workplaces

Today, I-VADE is preparing for large-scale deployment trials across Australian health networks, with ECU having now progressed an intellectual-property licensing arrangement with spin-out company Alpha Immersion Pty Ltd.

The program has been supported through WA Health funding and the Western Australian Future Health Research and Innovation Fund, alongside CSIRO’s ON Accelerate community and the Microsoft Founders Hub.

The next phase well underway, focuses on expanding deployment trials, gathering implementation evidence and preparing the platform for broader adoption across Australia and international markets. 

The vision extends beyond commercial success. By helping clinicians develop practical skills and confidence in responding to aggressive behaviour, I-VADE aims to contribute to safer workplaces, improved staff wellbeing and better patient experiences.

As deployment expands, I-VADE demonstrates how university research can move beyond the laboratory to address pressing challenges in healthcare—delivering benefits for healthcare workers, health services and the communities they serve.