Young girl at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland receives VR-based pain release for Sickle Cell Disease. Photo: KindVR
It’s been a year now since the launch of the Oculus and the HTC Vive, and the VR-hype-train seems to only be accelerating in 2017. It almost stands to reason to assume that gaming and entertainment are still the two primary content drivers behind the technology, yet other areas and industries of our day-to-day life seems to have gradually built up courage and taken a look at what made VR appetizing, and then applied it to their own fields of work. We’ve seen educational content for schools,commercial examples engaging consumers and yes – even medical virtual reality, which we will be discussing today.
Let’s explore 5 incredible examples of medical virtual reality. All of these individual projects are herculean accomplishments in their own right, and they all do a great deal of good, which is the rationale in this not being a numbered list. Without further ado, let’s get to it!
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Institute for Creative Technologies, USC
Moving on, we’ll be covering another American player in the field, who have had years of experience working with technology-based mental rehabilitation – namely, the work by the Institute for Creative Technologies the University of Southern California. Here, at Playa Vista, several incredibly high-production projects are constantly taking shape, led by the team’s director Skip Rizzo who we at the editorial had a brief chance to meet when he attended VR Days in Amsterdam back in 2016.
“VR is an evocative technology. It can bring out emotions that sometimes can’t come out in other ways. This is where VR shines. You can put people in simulations that bring up an emotion, and then teach them ways to deal with that emotion in an appropriate fashion” – Skip Rizzo
Some of the lab’s projects include delivering cognitive or physical rehab after someone’s had a stroke or traumatic brain injury for instance as well as teaching people with autism some social skills. These are just examples, and the team is working on plenty of projects that will make your jaw drop. In fact, here’s a handful of selected projects we thought you might want to check out, just so you can get an idea of how vast this project really is:
* Human Dimension Development
* Disaster Relief Simulation
* Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention
* Health Care Support
* Post-Traumatic Stress Treatment
* Counter-Terrorism Preparedness
The project is funded by the US army. The army has a plethora of different research labs around the world, yet this particular one has a focus on VR and innovative technologies.Their work on mental health and rehabilitation is undisputed, and known world-wide for being state-of-the-art content. When we attended the VR Days event, we couldn’t walk across a group of people without at one point hearing a reference to the work Skip and the team is doing. We wish them the best of luck in their pursuits!
Medical Field: Mental Health, Rehabilitation
Company / Organization: USC Institute for Creative Technologies
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VR-Tech Helps Paraletics Regain Muscle Control
Through the use of VR-based simulation and a brain-wave controlled robotic suit, eight patients suffering from severe spinal cord injuries have managed to regain partial neurological control over their lower bodies after an extensive 12 month training program. There’s even sources stating that some have regained muscle control later on.
“Nobody ever imagined that one day, we will be talking about the possibility of using brain-machine interface to induce partial neurological recovery in patients who have been diagnosed as having complete spinal cord injury.” – Dr. Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina
This is massive, and while we’re only in the very early stages of figuring out just how the use of Virtual Reality assisted and accelerated the use of the Exoskeleton, it’s still a tremendous achievement that deserves a spot on today’s list nonetheless.
* “Robot-Like Machines Helped People With Spinal Injuries Regain Function” – NPR
* “Paralysed patients are able to walk again using virtual reality and brain training in ‘suprising’ breakthrough” – The Daily Mail
* “A Robotic Suit Is Helping Paralyzed People Feel Their Legs Again” – The Huffington Post
If you have the know-how and mental fortitude to read through it, the entirety of the study is freely available as a PDF here.
Medical Field: Rehabilitation
Company / Organization: Duke University
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Source: VRtoday Magazine