The marriage of medicine and VR
New apps may even help improve the experience inside an operating room
When it comes to augmented reality (AR), the first example that often comes to people’s minds is Pokemon GO. But did you know the same technology that had people around the world hunting for virtual Pikachu creatures a couple of years ago is being explored to help you improve your health?
As anesthesiologists, we use a lot of technology in our jobs. But through our roles at the University of Toronto’s Collaborative Human Immersive Interaction Laboratory (CHISIL), we’re also looking for new ways to adapt tech to help give people better experiences with the health-care system.
It’s an exciting time to be doing this kind of work. Virtual reality (VR) and AR devices are becoming more affordable and accessible, like the special headsets that work with your smartphone. It’s easier than ever for the technology to help people across the country or around the world.
By creating immersive, computer-generated imagery (CGI), we can virtually transport people into operating rooms and hospitals to give them a first-person perspective of the steps involved in various procedures in real life.
For example, a lot of people feel anxiety and claustrophobia during an MRI and need to be put to sleep for the procedure. But if we can better prepare them beforehand, they’re more comfortable and less likely to need anesthesia. It’s more comfortable for the patient, speeds up the process and makes it less expensive. It can also help people better understand what will happen during the process and enable them to give more informed consent.
There have already been some wins in marrying VR and medicine and we’re proud we’ve been able to be part of a few of them.
We’ve helped develop an app called ChildLife VR, a virtual operating-room experience that can help prepare kids for surgery, scans and other hospital procedures. This gives young people an opportunity to go through their procedure before they even leave home, helping them feel less nervous. Created with the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the app is available through Apple’s App Store, and we’re working on a version for Android devices too.
In another project with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, we’re also working to create a larger bank of virtual hospital experiences that could include things such as walking into the operating room, learning what it feels like to have an epidural or nerve block, or go into radiology.
We’ve got nearly 30 modules so far and we hope the app, PeriOperative VR, will be ready for release in the next few months.
VR has already been well-established for helping people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reframe their experiences and work through challenging scenarios. Researchers are also looking into how VR might be useful in managing pain and currently writing a position paper on how to use it for different types of pain.
Just like anything used in a medical setting, it takes time to carefully research and validate new things to make sure they can deliver safe, positive outcomes. But it’s thrilling to be active in making this happen and to help find ways to reimagine existing technology for meaningful medical outcomes.
Dr. Clyde Matava is an assistant professor of anesthesia at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. He is also a staff anesthesiologist and the director of Innovation, Infomatics and Technology in the Department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Fahad Alam is an assistant professor of anesthesia at U of T as well as a staff anesthesiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Matava and Alam co-founded the Collaborative Human Immersive Interaction Laboratory. Doctors’ Notes is a weekly column by members of the U of T Faculty of Medicine.