Augmented Reality in Outpatient Care: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Introduction: Augmented reality (AR) is seeing an increase in its applications in healthcare, but its reach in outpatient care remains undefined. Patients in outpatient settings face poor medical understanding. AR may help address this gap between patients and physicians through immersive and interactive models and supporting tools. This narrative review aims to evaluate the status of AR in outpatient care, categorise its applications, and identify limitations and future research needs.

Methods: Four databases-PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library-were conducted for peer-reviewed studies published from January 2015 to February 2025. Studies were included if they regarded AR interventions in outpatient care settings. Studies were analysed and grouped thematically into five clinical domains of AR intervention.

Results: After review, 19 studies-spanning 987 participants-were included. AR applications were categorised into patient education and engagement (n = 3), cognitive and functional assessment (n = 3), device interaction and remote monitoring (n = 3), procedural guidance in outpatient interventions (n = 5), and rehabilitation and functional recovery support (n = 5). Most included studies were pilot studies (n = 6) and had relatively small sample sizes (median = 28). Studies proved that AR interventions consistently improved patient understanding, engagement and procedural support. Nevertheless, studies faced limitations including the need for specialised and bulky hardware-which affected patient comfort as well-reliability issues, technical difficulties and platform-specific inconsistencies.

Conclusion: AR has been proved to have the potential to improve outpatient care across five main areas: patient education, cognitive and functional assessment, medical device interaction, procedural guidance and rehabilitation. Studies consistently support that AR enhances patient comprehension, engagement and procedural accuracy while allowing for remote monitoring and personalised therapy. Furthermore, AR interventions demonstrate high usability and clinical relevance. Nevertheless, limitations such as hardware complexity and inconsistent technical performance remain. Future research should prioritise large-scale RCTs and strategies to integrate AR into pre-existing digital workflows.

Keywords: augmented reality; healthcare technology; outpatient care; patient education; patient understanding; procedural guidance; rehabilitation; remote monitoring.

FIGURE 1

Complete search strategies for PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Embase databases.

FIGURE 2

PRISMA flow chart describing the process of article selection.