Virtual Reality and Better Outcomes: Patient Engagement, Motivation, and Focus
Written by: Alaine Stacie Myrtle
Image credit: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1592030581891-6ebac71d3af2
Technology has made our lives much better. And nothing showcases this more than the applications virtual reality (VR) has introduced to multiple industries. In fact, an article from Forbes highlights that the global market for extended reality solutions is expected to reach $7 billion by the end of 2026. Indeed, we are already seeing multiple businesses using VR to train their employees, or educators integrating the technology into their lesson plan. And Healthcare is certainly not exempted from the advances of VR.
Today, we’ll tackle some of VR’s more prominent benefits, specifically for patient outcomes.
Pain Management
When hospital patients are undergoing severe pain, the natural reaction is to give them pain medication to dull their senses. However, VR can provide a similar type of relief. “Most patients today are interested in reducing their need for pharmaceuticals,” says Dr. Beth Darnall, a pain management specialist at Stanford Health Care. According to Dr. Darnall’s studies and similar research, VR simulations can provide a more pleasant option for mitigating pain by distracting the brain.
Plus, it’s an accessible way to alleviate pain from any location. For example, due to the pandemic, people are now forced to work remotely. However, information published by Pain Free Working reveals that a work from home setup is not optimized for ergonomics like your traditional office. As such, it can be the cause of several stressors, like back, wrist, and shoulder pain. With an in-house VR headset, the average person can reap the technology’s pain-mitigation benefits as well. This is true for other common pains experienced at home, like headaches and dysmenorrhea.
Overcoming Fear
Medical professionals have been using cognitive-behavioral therapy to treat phobias since the late 50s. This therapy entails that patients identify the source of their fears, expose them to it, and slowly replace them with the thoughts to overcome them. However, not everybody is comfortable enough to go through the process. Fortunately, VR, combined with realistic simulations, can offer a safer way to immerse patients to said phobias. In a previous post, we featured how Harv Rev Psychiatry proved this when they had a patient undergo treatment for their fear of flying. They traced the source of the fear and found that it came from airplane turbulence. With VR, the patient was able to experience a turbulence-free “flight.”
In any case, VR has the potential to allow patients to safely overcome their fears.
Anxiety Control
Similar to treating phobias, therapy for controlling anxiety is often done by exposing the patient to the trigger. This is what research published in the National Library of Medicine showed when they had patients undergo VR exposure therapy for social anxiety. Placed in “social situations” where they were gradually forced to interact, the subjects eventually showed an increase in their belief to successfully talk with people outside the simulation, too.
VR has also seen success in calming bouts of anxiety via guided meditation. After all, while meditation can calm the mind by its practice of focused concentration, not everybody can sit through one—whether that’s due to lingering worries or the noisy environment. Fortunately, a VR simulation can give the user the focus that they need.
“I sat, breathed, and took in the rhythm of the waves for a record-breaking 40 minutes,” shares Sarah Garone, a VR user who uses the technology to control her anxiety. She was referring to her experience as she sat by the “ocean.” “I actually meditated—which under normal circumstances is extremely difficult for my anxious mind to do.”
Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy
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VR equipment isn’t just made up of a headset. It has controllers, too, which can emulate the human arms and hands in a virtual setting (up to finger movements). Certain VR games even have you walking around the room. Simulations can be created to emulate daily living, such as supermarket shopping or morning jogs. In a Hitechies podcast featuring Veena Somareddy, Co-founder and CTO at NeuroRehabVR, she mentioned how the biggest roadblock to therapy is the patient's “I can't do this mindset” due to their injury or illness. With VR, they can project themselves onto healthy avatars, building the confidence needed to reach out further than they would do in a real-life setting. Patients need to focus on the task at hand to rebuild neurological pathways anyway, so immersion works wonders for their progress.
Plus, current methods for rehabilitation entail physical coordination tasks and cognitive exercises, which can be very tedious—not to mention boring. “Adherence is key to recovery,” explains Stephanie Rossit, a leading researcher in the VR field for medical applications. Rossit found that integrating VR into therapy encouraged patients to do it more often. For example, VR games keep patients entertained, focused, and more motivated to beat their previous scores.
Since they’re having fun, patients tend to forget they’re even in therapy—allowing them to sustain longer sessions. They can even be given the chance to use the devices at home, and they will very likely take it, allowing patients to progress on their rehabilitation even further.
VR and the Future of Patient Outcomes
The potential of VR for improving patient outcomes is limitless, from alleviating pain to helping people exercise their motor skills. We at Neuro Rehab VR are working on meticulously updating our exercises, creating new simulations, and designing new features to improve the efficiency of our exercises for the patients. While adoption of the technology is slow, further refinement to its processes could push it into the mainstream.
Still, what we already have today is nothing short of phenomenal.
Written by Alaine Stacie Myrtle
Exclusive for neurorehabvr.com