Tag: virtual reality

Virtual Reality Therapy for Fear of Flying

Written by: admin Posted: Category: Press releases Tags: Aerophobia fear of flying flying phobia virtual reality virtual reality treatment

Is your fear of flying preventing you from that vacation you’ve been dreaming of, or have you been unable to move up in your job because you refuse to travel on an airplane?  Virtual Reality Therapy may be the solution you’ve been looking for!

Amazingly up to 20% of Americans suffer from aerophobia, or the fear of flying. Some symptoms may include a racing heart, increased sweating, shaking, flushed skin, feeling disoriented, and an inability to concentrate. You may even have had an anxiety or panic attack when you were just thinking about flying. In fact, some individuals refuse to go to the airport to pick up friends or loved ones because of this phobia.

Whether you are a first-time flyer who is considering taking a trip, or you’ve tried to fly in the past and been unable to before due to your flying phobia, many individuals are finding help in the form of a virtual world.

Virtual Reality therapy exposes you to flying scenarios in the safety and comfort of the therapist’s office. Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, President of the Virtual Reality Medical Center (VRMC) in La Jolla, California has been practicing Virtual Reality (VR) therapy for over 2 decades. She completed the first randomized controlled clinical trial in 1996 using Virtual Reality and biofeedback to treat patients with a fear of flying.  And the VRMC has been successfully performing VR therapy now for 24 years!   With a new set of skills on how to react differently and think differently about flying, followed by gradual exposure through VR, you can be taking flight in no time!  Most individuals with a specific phobia require on average one clinical intake session and 10 treatment sessions.  If you live in the San Diego area, you can choose to come once a week or twice a week.  If you are coming from out of the area, we can accommodate “condensed treatment” where you will experience one VR session per day, each day, Monday-Friday.

28th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Integrative Pain Management

Written by: Brenda Wiederhold Posted: Category: Press releases Tags: chronic pain pain management the virtual reality medical center virtual reality

On Friday, October 20, Dr. Brenda K. Wiederhold was an invited speaker at the Academy of Integrative Pain Management’s 28th Annual Meeting. As the “largest network of pain care professionals”, this conference exhibited the best practices and latest advancements in integrative pain management. Recent attention on the opioid crisis in America has heightened the awareness for nonpharmacological adjunctive pain care techniques. Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as an innovative technological application for pain distraction.

Dr. Wiederhold’s presentation focused on the use of virtual reality as an adjunctive pain management tool. With twenty-four years of clinical virtual reality (VR) experience, Dr. Wiederhold shared her VR research in dental pain management, surgical pain distraction, and chronic pain management. Referencing less medication, less pain, and lower physician stress, Dr. Wiederhold cited recent surgical pain distraction publications that highlight the significance of VR’s health care capabilities. “In both gynecological surgery and endoscopic procedures, physiological indicators of pain were reduced in patients using VR distraction”, Wiederhold noted. As well, in chronic pain management, VR can be a useful adjunctive tool for patient education and therapy.  The presentation concluded with a brief question and answer.

Contact:  frontoffice @ vrphobia.com (delete the spaces to send an email)

Visit our YouTube channel for more information:  www.Youtube.com/VirtualMedical

Top 10 Developments as We Move into Third Decade of Virtual Reality…

Written by: admin Posted: Category: Press releases Tags: virtual reality virtual reality treatment

https://healthmanagement.org/c/healthmanagement/issuearticle/virtual-reality-clinic-a-case-study

 

The growing role of VR in healthcare.

How has VR developed and what potential does it have for future healthcare?

In the 1990s, there were no resources dedicated to virtual reality (VR) and behavioural healthcare – no journals, no clinics, no conferences, no training programmes and only few advanced technologies. Today, we find ourselves in the midst of a new exciting and challenging era of technology-enhanced behavioural healthcare…

Virtual Reality for the Attenuation of Pain and Anxiety

Written by: Brenda Wiederhold Posted: Category: Press releases Tags: pain distraction pain management virtual reality

The Virtual Reality Medical Center and nonprofit affiliate, Interactive Media Institute, recently published the article, “Using Virtual Reality to Mobilize Health Care: Mobile Virtual Reality Technology for Attenuation of Anxiety and Pain” in the January Issue of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine. The article summarizes the use of virtual reality as a tool for pain distraction and stress reduction in patients. This tool has been used to treat phobias, stress disorders, distract from surgical pain, and help overcome chronic pain. As a mobile healthcare platform, virtual reality and related technologies are changing the face of healthcare services by increasing access, efficiency, and effectiveness.

For the full text, please visit: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8197481/

Please direct any questions regarding this article to Dr. Brenda K. Wiederhold at frontoffice@vrphobia.com

 

 

Wiederhold BK, Miller IT, Wiederhold MD. Using Virtual Reality to Mobilize Health Care: Mobile Virtual Reality Technology for Attenuation of Anxiety and Pain. IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine. 2018 Jan;7(1):106-9.

Emerging Technologies Helping to Mobilize Healthcare Services

Written by: Brenda Wiederhold Posted: Category: Press releases Tags: mobilizing healthcare virtual reality

Collaborating with an international group of researchers, Dr. Brenda Wiederhold, Ian Miller, and Dr. Mark Wiederhold recently published a chapter in Digital Health: Scaling Healthcare to the World. Edited by Homero Rivas and  Katarzyna Wac of Stanford University, this book presents a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art approach to digital health technologies and healthcare practices. Wiederhold, Miller, and Wiederhold contributed a chapter titled, “Augmenting Behavioral Healthcare:Mobilizing Services with Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.” This chapter focuses on the use of virtual and augmented reality in behavioral healthcare. More specifically, it describes how these portable technologies can be used to increase access and efficiency of behavioral health interventions.

 

You may purchase the full text at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-61446-5_9

For questions regarding the chapter, please contact Dr. Brenda K. Wiederhold (frontoffice@vrphobia.com).

Wiederhold BK, Miller I, Wiederhold MD. Augmenting Behavioral Healthcare: Mobilizing Services with Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. InDigital Health 2018 (pp. 123-137). Springer, Cham.

Helping teens curb the desire to smoke with virtual reality

Written by: Brenda Wiederhold Posted: Category: Press releases Tags: virtual reality

On July 31, 2017 The Open Family Studies Journal published “Virtual Reality Smoking Cessation—Designed for Teens, by Teens. This report, conducted by the Virtual Reality Medical Center (VRMC) and Interactive Media Institute (IMI), sought to teach high school students how to recognize and resist triggers or “cues” that make them want to smoke. With input from the students themselves, VRMC created a virtual home and virtual school containing scenes that typically evoke an urge to smoke. The students were then prompted with games like stomp the cigarette butt to help extinguish the urge. They could also choose to play the virtual drums as a form of distraction. Overall, the report explains the Cue Exposure Therapy (CET) used to treat smoking addictions, how the virtual environments were created, and the program functionalities.

For more information on the publication, you can download it for free here: https://benthamopen.com/FULLTEXT/TOFAMSJ-9-21 or contact Dr. Brenda K. Wiederhold at the Virtual Reality Medical Center.

Wiederhold BK, Miller I, Wiederhold MD. Virtual Reality Smoking Cessation–Designed for Teens, by Teens. The Open Family Studies Journal. 2017 Jul 31;9(1).

Virtual Reality Assisted Anesthesia During Gastrointestinal Surgery

Written by: Brenda Wiederhold Posted: Category: Press releases Tags: pain distraction virtual reality

Surgical Research Updates journal recently published “Virtual Reality Assisted Anesthesia (VRAA) during Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy: Report of 115 Cases— Analysis of Physiological Responses.” The second report of this study focused on patients’ physiological responses to stress and pain during gastrointestinal surgery. Researchers from Interactive Media Institute, Virtual Reality Medical Center in San Diego, and the Alberto Pisanty Clinic, and Panamerican University in Mexico City participated. Results indicate lower heart rate and respiration rate (physiological indicators of stress) in patients using VR than those who did not.

These findings support a previous publication of self-report pain scores and highlight the usefulness of VR to reduce physiological responses to stress and decrease pain without medication. These findings have large implications in surgical practice moving forward. Reduced need for medication like anesthesia help lower medical costs, reduce the risk complications, and reduce patient recovery time.

 

Contact author:

Brenda K. Wiederhold

Virtual Reality Medical Center

frontoffice@vrphobia.com

 

Vasquez JM, Wiederhold BK, Miller I, Lara DM, Wiederhold MD. Virtual reality assisted anesthesia (VRAA) during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy: Report of 115 cases-Analysis of physiological responses. Surgical Research Updates. 2017. https://synergypublishers.com/downloads/sruv5a1/

European Medical Journal – Innovations

Written by: Brenda Wiederhold Posted: Category: Press releases Tags: pain distraction virtual reality

Interactive Media Institute, Virtual Reality Medical Center, and the Panamerican University School of Medicine in Mexico City recently published findings on the use of virtual reality (VR) surgical pain distraction in the January 2017 issue of the European Medical Journal – Innovations. In a study of 115 participants, researchers found people who viewed immersive VR environments reported less pain during and after their gastrointestinal surgical procedure than those who did not. The researchers call for further investigation into whether VR can be used to supplement or replace traditional pharmacological anesthesia.

 

This research adds on to studies already examining the use of VR in pain attenuation, but is one of the first to use VR during surgical procedures. Not only did the patients report lower pain scores, but the success of the treatment suggests the potential of VR to help lower the need for medications like anesthesia. Additionally, the surgeon rated his stress lower and completed surgeries faster when patients were in VR. The reduction of pain without pharmacological substances can 1) help lower costs for public health institutions, 2) reduce the risk of complications, and 3) decrease patient recovery time.

 

Contact author:

Dr. Brenda K. Wiederhold

Virtual Reality Medical Center

frontoffice@vrphobia.com

Access full text:http://emjreviews.com/therapeutic-area/innovations/virtual-reality-assisted-anaesthesia-during-upper-gastrointestinal-endoscopy-report-of-115-cases

Vázquez JL, Wiederhold BK, Miller I, Wiederhold MD. Virtual reality assisted anaesthesia during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy: report of 115 cases. EMJ Innov. 2017;1[1]:75-82. http://emjreviews.com/therapeutic-area/innovations/virtual-reality-assisted-anaesthesia-during-upper-gastrointestinal-endoscopy-report-of-115-cases/

Use VR Handhelds in Mass Casualty Disasters

Written by: Brenda Wiederhold Posted: Category: Articles Tags: handheld mass casualty disasters virtual reality

Use VR Handhelds in Mass Casualty Disasters

How can governments and health organizations effectively prepare to handle mass casualty disasters? In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and hospitals have plans in place to handle people’s physical health needs, yet the mental health needs of survivors often get too little attention, too late.

To read the full article see: Use VR Handhelds in Mass Casualty Disasters.