Interpretation of VR application cases in the medical industry

Release date: 2017-07-27

With the popularization of smart phones, virtual reality (VR) has also entered the ordinary life of many people from science fiction. But when it comes to virtual reality technology, many people think of games. In the medical industry, can virtual reality bring a new revolution to human health like artificial intelligence?

In May of this year, medical health information consulting company Kalorama Information released a report that the application market for virtual reality technology (VR) and reality enhancement technology (AR) in the medical field has increased from 525 million US dollars in 2012 to 2017. The year was $976 million. This report undoubtedly gave a lot of reassurance to many people who are optimistic about VR. Perhaps this time, VR is no longer a short-lived trend, but will stop in our lives and bring real changes to everyone's life.

In fact, virtual reality technology has been proven to treat pain, phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, help people quit smoking, and even solve dental problems... Recently, the famous digital health media in the United States, MobiHealthNews, counted the application of virtual reality technology in the medical industry. 15 cases. Chuangjianhui has enriched these 15 cases for you to let more people understand the future relationship between virtual reality and human health.

Surgical training

Although human medical technology has been developed more and more advanced, at present, we still rely on books, exams, and paper-and-paper answers for doctor training. In this regard, future VR technology is expected to show its talents.

Osso VR from Boston is a company dedicated to providing doctor training with VR technology. Osso VR was established in February 2016 and in June this year it acquired $2 million in seed round funding. Based on virtual reality platforms such as Oculus Rift/Touch and HTC Vive, Osso VR has developed a set of software that can create virtual operating rooms. In the virtual operating room, doctors can safely perform more complex surgical procedures.

Level EX from Chicago is also a similar company. Level EX has developed a mobile app called Airway EX, which was developed by video game developers and doctors and is a surgical simulation game. The game is designed for anesthesiologists, otolaryngologists, intensive care specialists, emergency room doctors and pulmonary surgeons. The gaming app provides doctors with the opportunity to perform 18 different virtual airway procedures on real patient cases.

Virtual surgery combines realistic simulation techniques such as human tissue dynamics, endoscopic device optics, and moving fluids. "Patients can bleed, cough, and react," said Sam Glassenberg, CEO of Level EX. “But in the game, doctors can avoid giving real risks to patients and improve their surgical skills through realistic effects,” adds Glassenberg.

2. Pain management

In other words, the most widely used VR technology reported by MobiHealthNews is pain management. The Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles launched a new virtual medical project led by Dr. Brennan Spiegel to use VR technology to help patients reduce pain. The idea is based on the “Biopsychosocial Model” (BPS), which considers that individual factors such as physical differences, mental states, and stress resistance can affect a person's treatment and health. Therefore, through VR. With the addition of technology and psychosocial science, people can better manage pain.

“We have had VR treatment on more than 300 patients, trying to figure out when VR is useful and when it is useless,” Dr. Spiegel said.

In a small controlled study, the results showed that VR technology was able to reduce the patient's self-reported average pain score from 5.4 to 4.1. There is also some evidence that by observing the role of headphones, VR technology can help doctors determine whether a patient's pain is a physiological or psychological effect.

3. Patient education

In addition to pain management, Cedars Sinai Medical Center has partnered with the Holman United Methodist Church to explore the use of VR technology in patient education. They start with the prevention and management of hypertension in vulnerable groups. Through a VR program, users can enter a virtual kitchen to check the sodium content of each food, and then “eat” the food, follow the food into the body, and understand the hypertension. The effect on the heart.

(Source: BioLucid official website)

In addition, another virtual reality company, BioLucid, is also committed to promoting patient education with VR. Headquartered in Florida, BioLucid has designed a virtual human tour that helps users better understand their health. In September last year, BioLucid announced that it had been acquired by digital health company Sharecare.

Sharecare CEO Jeff Arnold said: "The consumer-oriented VR innovation is mainly focused on gaming and entertainment, but its practical visual storytelling, especially VR technology that combines 360-degree video technology in healthcare and patients. There is also huge potential for participation."

4. Clinician education

With VR technology, the days of learning about common diseases through textbooks and 2D anatomy are over! Salix Pharmaceuticals, a gastrointestinal drug development company from New Jersey, has developed an interactive virtual reality platform that guides physicians in identifying the cause of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in patients.

Through this platform, Salix Pharmaceuticals can guide doctors to examine a number of potential causes of IBS in a virtual environment that mimics the gastrointestinal tract, including changes in the intestinal-brain axis, imbalances in intestinal microflora, hypersensitivity to pain, Or chronic imbalance caused by temporary gastro-intestinal tracts.

"IBS is a complex disease, and I believe that the virtual reality experience will help healthcare professionals better understand the disease and promote the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases," said Dr. Brooks Cash, one of Salix Pharmaceuticals' scientific advisors.

5. Physiotherapy and rehabilitation

A few years ago, Microsoft Kinect and some 3D motion tracking equipment companies began to revolutionize the field of physiotherapy. Now, the emergence of VR technology has further strengthened their ability to innovate.

VRPhysio from Boston offers an immersive, interactive virtual environment to help patients with physiotherapy. For example, patients need to hold a virtual sword to hit the target, which requires them to test shoulder movement first. In addition, the patient can control the neck by moving the head in a game and controlling the virtual water gun in the hand.

Another company, MindMaze, is committed to using VR technology to help patients overcome strokes. For patients who can't move with their left hand after stroke but still have a right hand, MindMaze can provide a virtual left hand. Although this hand is controlled by the patient's right hand, it can help the brain recover its perception of the limb.

6. Exposure therapy

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States and one of the most difficult to cure. Any small piece of life can bring the patient back to the scene that was injured, and let them feel the pain repeatedly. Deliberately bringing patients back to traumatic scenes seems to be cruel and unscientific, but now more and more experts believe that exposure therapy is expected to be an effective treatment for PTSD.

With the support of VR technology, exposure therapy for PTSD patients can be performed in a safe and controlled environment.

“VR and exposure therapy can form the perfect combination,” said Dr. Albert Skip Rizzo, a professor at the University of Southern California's USC Davis School of Gerontology. “With virtual reality, you can place patients In a stimulating environment, and systematically control the performance of the stimulus, evidence-based treatment is used to continuously magnify the treatment effect."

7. Conversion disorder treatment

Since last year, Stanford University Medical School and the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab have started a small clinical trial that investigates the possibility of VR technology in treating conversion disorders. Participants will use the special software developed by VHIL, combined with the Oculus Rift, to experience the feeling of being in a virtual avatar.

A transformative disorder, also known as a functional neurological disorder, is a condition that converts mental or emotional stress into physical symptoms. “People are curious about this condition, but they lack research, and pharmaceutical companies don’t have a real enough understanding of the disease,” said Dr. Kim Bullock, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University.

Neuroimaging studies have shown that in patients with conversion disorders, the normal inhibition of the amygdala controls part of the prefrontal cortex of the motor sensation cortex and does not function properly. At present, many therapies are dedicated to avoiding the excessive activity of the amygdala to prevent the patient from feeling unbalanced, and VR can play a role in this aspect.

8. Quit smoking

MindCotine, from Redwood City, Calif., is using virtual reality technology to solve one of humanity's oldest and most difficult problems: quitting smoking.

For many people, smoking is not just a physiological need. Therefore, MindCotine's VR program combines mindfulness training, physiological response, and psychological strategies to change the behavior of smokers through immersion.

By using MindCotine's VR app, users can see some instructive meditation images to encourage reflection. At the same time, they can sit down with a cigarette for a virtual smoking experience. The app provides users with resources and tools to help them respond to nicotine withdrawal responses in 20 minutes.

9. Overcome fear

Death is inevitable, but many people find it difficult to accept this reality. Many people think that only the fact of facing up can really reduce the fear of life. With VR technology, people can experience death more realistically without having to be in danger. Researchers from the University of Barcelona used Oculus Rift to create a VR model experiment in which people can enter an avatar while experiencing accidents from a third-party perspective. Studies have shown that VR can reduce people's death anxiety, and this result was published in the journal PLOS One.

In addition, VR can help children overcome the fear of injections. The California-based Sansum Clinic launched a study of 244 children who put some children wearing VR glasses when they were vaccinated and were in the underwater world. Afterwards, hospital surveys of parents and clinicians showed that children in the VR group felt significantly less pain and fear than children in the non-VR group.

10. Concussion assessment

In the gaming arena, VR has always been fascinated by eye tracking, a technology that allows users to interact with virtual environments without the need for both hands. In the medical field, eye tracking is a life-saving application.

Boston-based SyncThink recently won the Pulse @ MassChallenge Startup Award, a company that uses VR technology to diagnose concussions, which not only assess the immediate damage of a patient after injury, but also track patient recovery with objective measures. practice. Currently, SyncThink's platform has been used by professional sports teams and Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

11. Pension

In general, the consumer electronics market tends to exclude older people. However, more and more digital technology innovators have found that older people actually accept new technologies far beyond their imagination. Rendever, a start-up from Massachusetts, is committed to providing VR equipment to the elderly, helping them to return to their childhood homes through Oculus Rift heads, or to participate in virtual outdoor activities.

In addition, VR devices can facilitate communication between older people, allowing them to engage in conversations through virtual scenes or to create art. Rendever's report said that nursing homes using their VR products could increase the happiness index of the elderly by 40%.

12. Decompression

Using VR devices to create an immersive relaxation environment to help people relieve stress seems to be a cliché. Now, there are countless similar mobile phone apps. However, there are still many companies that are committed to going further on the road of using VR decompression.

Happinss, Inc., of San Jose, Calif., is developing a wellness and relaxation application for the company. The company's Amdocs Development and Operations Center in Mexico also launched a corporate VR health room.

Another company, called Fisher Wallace Labs, has partnered with virtual reality device company Zeiss to develop a new product called Kortex that combines a neurostimulator with VR to treat depression. Symptoms, anxiety disorders and insomnia.

13. Fitness

Fitness is undoubtedly the hottest area in the digital health industry, and there are already a variety of health applications and wearable devices on the market that teach people how to keep fit. What kind of application potential does VR have in this regard?

Peloton, a health technology company from New York, is working to combine AR with spinning bikes. This bike integrates a tablet screen and provides a live or recorded fitness class for the athletes, giving them an immersive feel. In May of this year, Peloton successfully raised $325 million.

In addition, Zwift, a company from London, also launched a fixed-vehicle MMO. Combined with VR technology, cyclists can participate in online games and upload event data and health information to the athlete training analysis software Strava, Garmin Connect or Training Peaks.

14. Training midwives

It is not difficult to understand that VR technology can help people with midwifery training. After all, all the advantages of using VR for doctor training can be applied to midwifery training. In May of this year, Australia's University of Newcastle announced that the school will introduce VR technology to help midwives become familiar with the various situations that may be faced during the delivery process.

“In Australia and New Zealand, 15% of newborns require cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which is higher in preterm infants,” said Jessica Williams, project leader at the University of Newcastle. “The newly graduated midwife will find out in the emergency room. The reality is very different from the classroom in the classroom, and we hope to make up for this deficiency with VR."

Currently, the University of Newcastle is conducting a small randomized trial using Samsung GearVR, HTC Vive and Microsoft HoloLens equipment to verify that such training is effective.

15. Look at the teeth

Do not misunderstand! VR is currently not directly able to help you solve your dental problems. But do you feel that every time you go to the dentist, you are very nervous? In foreign countries, dentists will help patients to relieve their emotions by playing music and describing beautiful scenery. Now with VR technology, this situation is expected to improve.

(Source: VRmaster)

Although there is no clear evidence that VR can help relieve toothache, a trial involving 80 people showed that patients with VR devices had a significant reduction in pain when they were “in” coastal scenery. However, patients in the intervention group who are “in the city” seem to have no effect.

In any case, at least one dental hospital, Lake Minnetonka Dental from Minnesota, began collaborating with virtual reality technology companies, and they will further explore the application of VR in dental treatment!

Source: Chuangjianhui (WeChat Inno_Insight)

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