Virtual reality lets medical students see through patients’ eyes
Our exclusive report brings you the latest breakthroughs on how virtual and augmented reality technologies transform health care.
Virtual and augmented reality is not just about gaming. From treating patients to training clinicians, health care is one of the leading industries that are adopting these technologies. Hospitals are developing simulations and virtual worlds to train healthcare professionals in medical procedures. VR/AR help both patients to face their challenges and clinicians to improve their services in a risk free environment. These applications can be more convenient and less time consuming than the traditional methods.
In UNE’s virtual reality lab, medical students can see through aging patients’ eyes
UNE’s College of Osteopathic Medicine is one of four schools in the world that are using The Alfred Lab to give students the rare opportunity for patient perspective training to increase their empathy and improve their practice. Developed by Chicago-based Embodied Labs, the new virtual reality technology also is being used at the University of California, Irvine, University of Illinois at Chicago and Fontys University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.
UNE was able to buy equipment for four lab stations and subscribe to The Alfred Lab software through a $14,000 technology grant from the National Library of Medicine, said Barbara Swartzlander, the college’s library director… (Read more)
Toronto hospitals embrace virtual reality to ease pre-surgery anxiety
Virtual reality isn’t just for gamers anymore. Toronto anesthesiologists Fahad Alam and Clyde Matava are using immersive reality in health care in the only such lab in Canada called the Collaborative Human Immersive and Interactive Lab (CHISIL).
They have tested the technology on more than 200 patients including Tess at The Hospital for Sick Children and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. “We’re taking (VR) out of the gaming realm, and actually using it to help patients and changing care,” said Alam. With the immersive experience, “the fear of unknown is kind of eliminated.”… (Read more)
Stanford doctors use VR to help families understand their child’s heart conditions
The Stanford Virtual Heart allows users to “teleport” inside the heart to understand complex congenital heart defects, which can be some of the most difficult medical conditions to grasp. Users wear a VR headset and engage handheld controllers to rotate and inspect the heart’s different pieces, understand the circulation of blood throughout the organ, and see where defects exist, such as a hole in a septum or an improperly attached blood vessel… (Read more)
Ohio doctors employ virtual reality to train for trauma care
Ohio resident physicians in Emergency Medicine are getting a new taste of the ER, through virtual reality (VR). These doctors in training at OhioHealth’s Grant Medical Center are jumping into the emergency environment through recorded scenarios viewed on the HTC Vive VR platform. The users can walk around a virtual ER, and view various medical scenarios in stereoscopic 3D. Each environment is created through the use of multiple 360 degree cameras with additional audio recordings, recorded with consent of patients during real-life encounters. These are then stitched together to create a full VR environment, viewable through the Vive… (Read more)
Hospital makes $119 million bet on virtual, augmented reality center
The University of Nebraska Medical Center has broken ground on a new $119 million facility meant to help physicians and nurses train for next-generation care delivery using emerging virtual and augmented reality technology. The 192,000-square-foot facility will house UNMCs Interprofessional Experiential Center for Enduring Learning, or iEXCEL program, which aims to help physicians and other healthcare professionals do clinical training exercises and develop surgical skills via advanced simulation technologies, virtual immersive reality, augmented reality and holographic technologies, officials say… (Read more)
Study: Virtual Reality therapy could reduce pain for hospitalized patients
Virtual reality therapy can be effective in significantly reducing pain for hospitalized patients, according to a new study conducted at Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
In the study, published online by JMIR Mental Health, investigators examined 100 hospitalized patients who reported pain scores of greater than 3 on the Numeric Pain Rating Scale, which runs from 0 to 10. Fifty patients received virtual reality therapy consisting of wearing VR goggles to watch calming video content such as helicopter rides over scenic portions of Iceland, or imagery of swimming in the ocean with whales. Those patients reported a 24 percent drop in pain scores after using the virtual reality goggles… (Read more)
Lucasfilm to bring ‘Star Wars’ virtual reality headsets to hospitals for kids
Young Star Wars fans in need of an adventure are going to get it with help from a new program from a galaxy far, far away.
Starlight Virtual Reality, a new VR initiative launching later this year, will put 270 VR headsets into hospitals across the country, and will feature content from the Star Wars universe, as well as from Google Expeditions, Daydream, Google Earth VR and Tilt Brush. Star Wars: Force for Change is the founding sponsor of the program, which is receiving additional funding from Niagara Cares and VR technology powered by Google… (Read more)
Health study group receives virtual reality (VR) goggles as part of the educational reinforcement of healthy food choices
“Virtual reality is this new technology that’s mainly used for gaming and entertainment. What we’ve been discovering is that it can be used for therapeutic purposes to help manage everything from pain to anxiety to depression and in this case, high blood pressure,” says Brennan Spiegel, director of Health Services Research for Cedar Sinai Health System. Spiegel uses VR content in three different scenarios to help participants reduce their salt intake… (Read more)
HoloLens simulator allows medical students to examine 3D anatomy inside the body
CAE Healthcare announced the release of CAE VimedixAR, an ultrasound training simulator integrated with the Microsoft HoloLens.
VimedixAR delivers an unprecedented simulation-based training experience, allowing learners to interact and move freely within a clinical training environment that is augmented with holograms. For the first time, students will be able to examine 3D anatomy inside the body of the Vimedix manikin. As learners practice scanning an animated heart, lungs or abdomen, they will observe in real-time how the ultrasound beam cuts through anatomy to generate an ultrasound image… (Read more)
MindMaze reveals Mask to capture your facial expression in virtual reality
MindMaze wants to build the next-generation mind-machine interface. And today, it’s taking a step in that direction with the launch of Mask, a technology that can capture your facial expression and translate that to the face of a character in virtual reality.
It’s a surprisingly simple creation, as it consists of eight small sensors attached to a piece of foam that you insert into a virtual reality headset. It detects the electrical signals from your face muscles and then uses software to figure out what kind of face you are making, such as frowning, smiling, or squinting… (Read more)
How to use immersive storytelling as an anti-anxiety treatment
In order to better understand how virtual reality can shape anti-anxiety treatments, a group of digital storytellers have come together under the umbrella of a VR native media company called StoryUP. Led by Sarah Hill, these creative journalists feel non-fiction immersive storytelling can be more than just a tool for information and entertainment. But why virtual reality and immersive storytelling? According to Sarah, virtual reality is a therapeutic medium than others. In immersive media stories are more intimate, and they seem more real… (Read more)
