Vital Coach: A Study of Resiliency in Medical Students Using Wearable Technology and Personalized Wellness Coaching
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Summary
Medical students often begin training with psychological and physiological health metrics superior to their age-matched peers. By graduation, however, rates of depression, anxiety, and physiologic dysregulation are markedly higher, reflecting the cumulative strain of long study hours, high-stakes examinations, and the emotional burden of early patient care. Despite this, few medical schools provide structured, evidence-based tools for students to develop resiliency and recovery skills before clinical rotations begin.
Description
This gap represents both a health crisis and an educational opportunity. Burnout originating in medical school often persists into residency and practice, diminishing empathy and professionalism, and contributing to long-term attrition. Existing wellness offerings are largely reactive, relying on voluntary counseling or broad wellness sessions that fail to provide individualized insight into students' physiological readiness or stress recovery capacity. Moreover, schools lack objective, continuous data to pinpoint when students are physiologically stressed to tailor timely support. Against th…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–60 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * active first year Wake Forest School of Medicine medical students * have an Android or iOS smart phone * are willing to download the Arena Strive application Exclusion Criteria: * under the age of 18; or over the age of 60 * pregnant at enrollment or during course of study * any self-reported cardiac conditions that may impact heart rate and heart rate variability
Interventions
- BehavioralArena Strive
integrates asynchronous coaching, two virtual coaching sessions with a high-performance medicine coach, physiological data from wearable sensors, and a focused curriculum of performance tools tailored to frontline healthcare workers.
Location
- Wake Forest University Health SciencesWinston-Salem, North Carolina