Virtual Reality Is Used in Clinical Practice

Dr. Brennan M. Spiegel and his research team at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have been experimenting with virtual reality (VR) for years. I had a fruitful and very exciting correspondence with him about moments of immersion, virtual pharmacies or how to travel to Iceland without leaving your hospital bed. Read on! VR is an area of endless possibilities VR has not just moved the imagination of science-fiction fans, but also clinical researchers and real life medical practitioners. As a doctor, you could assist in the OR without ever lifting a scalpel. If you are a medical student, you could study the human body more closely and prepare better for real life surgeries. As a patient with mental health problems, you could fight your possible fear of heights, schizophrenia or paranoia more successfully. And perhaps the most successful application of VR so far is its utilization for stress release and pain reduction for patients suffering from chronic pain. For example, enthusiastic university students developed a VR game called Farmoo. As its main creator, Henry Lo says “it is intended to help teen cancer patients get distracted during chemotherapy treatments so that they can focus more on the activities inside the game, rather than the treatment itself”. Researchers at the University of Washington showed in an experiment that a 40 year old patient with 19% of his body covered in burns benefited greatly from the combination of hydrotherapy and VR usage. They even developed ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Virtual Reality in Medicine clinical practice future GC1 Healthcare Innovation technology VR Source Type: blogs