Virtual Reality in healthcare

The training of healthcare professionals, the rehabilitation of patients and the treatment of psychological disorders are some of the main uses of Virtual Reality applied to healthcare. According to all the experts, health will be, after video games, the sector with the greatest growth in the application of Virtual Reality in the coming years. A Goldman Sachs study forecasts that in 9 years virtual reality in healthcare will have a turnover of 5,100 million dollars.

In Spain, the healthcare sector currently ranks fifth in the application of virtual reality, according to a report prepared by The App Date. According to the Report on Virtual Reality in Spain, the health sector represents 12% of the Virtual Reality projects that exist in our country.

Although there is still a long way to go and research on Virtual Reality applied to healthcare, it is clear that virtual reality is a technology with enormous applications in the healthcare field, both from the patient’s point of view and for the training of medical staff. In this article we will analyze the main uses that are being given to VR in the health sector.

VIRTUAL REALITY USED IN PATIENT CARE

We have distinguished 4 areas of application of patient-centered VR, they are as follows:

  • Mental health treatments
  • Patients’ rehabilitation
  • Improvement of patients’ quality of life
  • Diagnosis of diseases

1. MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENTS

Its application in psychiatry is known as virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET). In recent years, VRET has demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of phobias, but it can also be used to improve attention in people with ADHD and to reduce depression.

Scientific researches speak of three main reasons for the use of Virtual Reality as a treatment for these pathologies: its effectiveness, greater than the imagination and as effective as the live presentation technique; its greater acceptance by the patient compared to other exposure therapies; and the personalization of the treatment, since Virtual Reality allows the practitioner to control to the maximum the environment to which the patient is exposed.

2. PATIENT REHABILITATION

In the case of patients who have suffered a stroke, Virtual Reality is a cognitive and motor training that allows them to be exposed to real situations that they will have to face in their daily life after leaving the hospital. The results of the analysis suggest that rehabilitation supported by virtual reality is an effective therapeutic complement for the rehabilitation of gait and motor function of the upper extremity.

3. IMPROVEMENT OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE

Reality allows patients to escape from their condition and even improve, in some cases, tolerance to certain treatments. Studies have shown that cancer patients who receive relaxation sessions with virtual reality that allow them to lower anxiety and improve overall tolerance to chemotherapy, in addition to reducing emotional disturbance.

Virtual reality sessions are also effective in pain management for certain patients and are considered a distraction therapy that helps to reduce anxiety.

In this area we can also talk about other uses of virtual reality, in the case of hospitalized children it helps them to escape and can even be used to communicate with their families.

It is also useful for experimentation, allowing people with disabilities to explore environments and experiences that they would not be able to live due to their limitations.

4. DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASES

Virtual Reality also allows the patient to be immersed in a virtual environment in which to carry out certain types of functional tests that can be used to diagnose diseases. This has been proven by scientists at the Tomsk Polytechnic University and the Siberian State Medical University in Russia, who have developed an experimental system for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases.

Image provided by Psious, showing Edgar Costilla testing the virtual reality platform developed by this Spanish company to improve the clinical practice of professionals working in mental health.

VIRTUAL REALITY APPLIED TO THE HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL

But we must not forget that Virtual Reality applied to healthcare can also help to improve the skills of healthcare professionals. Through virtual simulators they can perform complex operations or surgeries without risk to the patient and, in addition, thanks to virtual reality scientists can enter the organs and different parts of the human body to see in a unique way the inside of our organism and improve their knowledge about its behavior.

According to Dr. Sergio Vañó, president of AIES and coordinator of the Medical Technologies Unit at IRYCIS, “In the last year there has been an increase in the number of studies that demonstrate a relationship between the training of healthcare professionals with virtual reality, especially in surgical techniques, and an outstanding improvement in results with real cases”.

In next articles we will show real cases of the use of Virtual Reality technology applied to healthcare in Spanish hospitals and centers.

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