Table 1.

Comparison of proposed literature review with the existing works.

Study	Focus	Immersive technologies				Healthcare area	Limitations/Comparison to our study
		AR	VR	XR	MR
Mathew et al. [27]	Reviewing XR technology in medical education and training	×	×	✓	×	Medical education and training	⁃Training and education aspects only highlighted ⁃No challenges found
Pears et al. [29]	Reviewing XR technology in medical education and training	×	×	✓	×	Healthcare education & training	⁃Training and education aspects only ⁃No challenges found
Newbutt et al. [31]	Highlighting the applications of VR for people suffering from autism	×	✓	×	×	Anxiety & healthcare education	⁃Very limited applications of immersive technologies ⁃No issues were addressed ⁃Limited healthcare aspects covered
Higginbotham [32]	Discussing the virtual experience of VR & AR in neurosurgery	✓	✓	×	×	Neurosurgery	⁃Discussing only neurosurgery healthcare aspect ⁃No problems have been highlighted in this area ⁃Only AR and VR are pinpointed
Mathew et al. [28]	Identifies principles affecting the healthcare education	×	×	✓	×	Medical training & education	⁃Very limited applications of immersive technologies ⁃Training and education aspects only highlighted
Pears et al. [30]	Discusses immersive technologies role in surgery education using Artificial intelligence	✓	×	×	×	Tele surgery and education	⁃Only medical education aspect ⁃Only AR immersive technology is highlighted
Ryan et al. [33]	This SLR discusses the role of immersive technologies with the traditional technologies for nursing and healthcare education	✓	×	×	✓	Healthcare education	⁃XR and VR were not addressed ⁃Challenges were not identified
Tang et al. [34]	SLR discusses the current research trend, application area, recipients, evaluation approaches, contents of immersive technologies in medical education	✓	✓	✓	✓	Medical education and practice	⁃Covers only the specific area of healthcare ⁃More work is required to identify the emerging challenges and issues
Sadek et al. [35]	SLR reviewed the impacts of VR and AR on quality of medical education	✓	✓	×	×	Medical education	⁃Some other like XR and MR were left unaddressed ⁃Only one aspect of healthcare is reported ⁃Issues during the applications of VR and AR not highlighted
Linares-Chamorro et al. [39]	Study analyses the effects of VR technology for emotional well-being and anxiety of healthcare professional	×	✓	×	×	Anxiety and emotional well-being	⁃The analysis is based on only VR technology ⁃Targeted only for the anxiety and depression
Pallavicini et al. [36]	VR role in medicine and medical training and education is put forward	×	✓	×	×	Medicine & medical training and education	⁃Discusses the role of VR at abstract level ⁃Finding of study requires more extensive literature work ⁃Barriers are highlighted without proposing solutions
Wilcha et al. [37]	SLR investigates the advantages and disadvantages of VR technologies in medical teaching	×	✓	×	×	Medical education	⁃Other immersive technologies not fully covered ⁃Only medical education is focus of study
Spittle et al. [40]	This review explores literature for finding the remote studies conducted during the COVID-19	×	×	✓	×	Social distancing	⁃Describes only the social distancing or remote studies ⁃No challenges or limitations addressed by authors
Jacobs et al. [38]	The aim of study is to analyze the existing studies to understand trend, quality of medical education, learning experience using immersive technologies	✓	✓	×	✓	Medical education	⁃Only medical education aspect is addressed ⁃Issues during the implementation of immersive technologies were not found
Morimoto et al. [41]	It reviews the applications of immersive technologies in spine medicine	✓	✓	✓	✓	Medicine manufacturing and designing	⁃Covering the drugs and medicine aspects only
Kerdvibulvech [42]	Reviews the role of XR technologies during the pandemic in education and healthcare	×	×	✓	×	-Telemedicine, -mental health and social distancing	⁃Uses XR technology for healthcare ⁃Challenges and issues not found
Proposed review	✓Highlighting contributions of immersive technologies in different healthcare areas i.e. medical education and proctoring, online surgeries, stress management, social distancing and rehabilitation ✓Identifies challenges and provides solutions	✓	✓	✓	✓	-Medical training & education -Online surgeries -Virtual surgeries & operating procedures -Stress management & mental health, -Cognitive rehabilitations -Social distancing & fitness -Drugs manufacturing & designing	⁃Proposed review discusses the immersive technologies contributions in broader sense ⁃Covers almost every healthcare aspect based on advances/applications of immersive technologies ⁃Identifies the prevailing challenges and provides solutions based on extensive literature study