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Title: VR is helping to make daunting medical treatments more bearable for
patients

Date: Thu, 01 May 2025 16:15:05 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/vr-is-helping-...

Stanley Johnson is not a fan of needles. The 67-year-old Air Force veteran
has endured his fair share of pokes over the years, but when it was decided
that IV infusions would be the best course of action to treat his iron
deficiency, going into that first session felt nerve-wracking. So he brought
along whatΓÇÖs become a staple in his personal anxiety toolkit: his Apple
Vision Pro.

Johnson has taken to using the immersive wellness app, Tripp, to ease his
anxiety, and he says it was a big help in getting through his treatments,
especially in the beginning. The app offers a number of relaxation and
mindfulness experiences for AR/VR headsets and mobile, from guided meditation
to calming soundscapes and breathwork. ΓÇ£That first time, I was anxious,ΓÇ¥
Johnson said. ΓÇ£IΓÇÖd do the breathing exercises to put my mind into what
environment Tripp puts me in. Then I started watching movies.ΓÇ¥

When it comes to infusion therapy, the treatments can be long, the chairs
uncomfortable and passing the time without a distraction is difficult.
Watching a movie in the headset ΓÇ£instead of looking at this little screen
that they had up on the wall,ΓÇ¥ Johnson said, is ΓÇ£phenomenal.ΓÇ¥ ItΓÇÖs
transportive.

ΓÇ£I can see it better than I can in a theater,ΓÇ¥ he said. ΓÇ£ThatΓÇÖs one
of the things that I realized when I started the IV infusions… You have
this IV thatΓÇÖs in you for an hour, two hours ΓÇö might as well watch a
movie, and pick the one that I want rather than one that's randomly up there,
or the food channel or something like that.ΓÇ¥

Since the inception of virtual and augmented reality devices, thereΓÇÖs been
interest in how the technology could be used in healthcare settings, both to
improve patientsΓÇÖ experiences and as a training and enhanced visualization
tool for medical practitioners. Studies going back to 2000 have investigated
VRΓÇÖs potential to aid in stress reduction, pain management, physical
therapy and more.

But only in the last decade has it become feasible enough to explore in
earnest, thanks to the rise of consumer VR headsets, a wave ushered in by the
original Oculus Rift. Today, at-home VR, AR and mixed reality systems (and
what Apple calls ΓÇ£spatial computingΓÇ¥) arenΓÇÖt hard to come by. And with
options like MetaΓÇÖs $300 Quest 3S, itΓÇÖs possible to get a decent VR setup
for a relatively low cost. Not only can patients bring their own headsets,
but some clinics and hospitals have already begun their own studies with this
tech.

In a trial conducted from late 2021 to 2023, the results of which were
published recently in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, researchers
recruited 90 patients who were receiving chemotherapy at the Vanderbilt-
Ingram Cancer CenterΓÇÖs infusion clinic in Nashville and provided half of
them with headsets for a 12-minute VR session during their treatment, while
the other half served as the control group. Patients in the VR group were
shown narrated tours of places such as Venice, Agra and the Ecuadorian
Amazon. All participants recorded their stress levels, pain and mood before
and after the sessions.

ΓÇ£Across the board, there was improvement in the study group versus the
control group,ΓÇ¥ said Cody Stansel, one of the studyΓÇÖs authors. ΓÇ£We saw
that it positively impacted the patient's side effects. It reduced their
stress levels. Generally, we didn't see patients that were experiencing a
whole lot of pain, but there was still a reduction in the amount of pain
they're experiencing, so we saw results from that as well… It went really
well, patients responded very favorably.ΓÇ¥

In addition to the self-reported ratings the patients provided, the
researchers measured their heart rates before and halfway through the 12-
minute sessions, and found the measurements supported their feelings of
reduced stress. The difference was significant between the control group and
patients whoΓÇÖd used VR, with heart rates among the latter group decreasing
by an average of 6.6 beats per minute at the midway check, according to the
paper. Crucially, the patients also reported whether theyΓÇÖd experienced
cybersickness, the condition similar to motion sickness that VR induces in
some people.

ΓÇ£What we found is patients didn't really experience any measurable motion
sickness,ΓÇ¥ Stansel said. ΓÇ£All of the responses across the board were
really low with that, but we were intentional when we chose the programming
to choose ones that had a low motion sickness rating to begin with. We had
chosen these tourism videos where they're basically just standing there,
because we wanted to avoid any of that ΓÇö cancer patients, because of the
chemotherapy and things, can be more prone to nausea, so we definitely didn't
want to make anything worse if they're already experiencing that.ΓÇ¥

According to the researchers, the findings suggest VR could be an effective
and accessible distraction tool for patients undergoing treatments like
chemotherapy. Even if patients donΓÇÖt bring their own devices, for a clinic,
the cost of entry is low, ΓÇ£a few hundred bucks to get started,ΓÇ¥ Stansel
notes. ΓÇ£As long as you clean [the headsets] well and take care of them,
theyΓÇÖll last quite a while.ΓÇ¥ But the potential benefits ΓÇö alleviating
stress and pain ΓÇö are great.

ΓÇ£Modern day virtual reality consumes so many of your senses that it's very
easy to kind of temporarily forget about where you are and what you're going
through, and so the patients are really just able to focus on the
experience,ΓÇ¥ Stansel said. ΓÇ£It kind of takes their mind off all the other
things they have going on.ΓÇ¥

More research into the subject could shed light on VRΓÇÖs efficacy in
providing relief for patients experiencing higher pain levels, or if other
types of content would work better for certain situations. For patients
already strapping into immersive virtual worlds to help them get through
difficult days, though, itΓÇÖs proven invaluable.

On Reddit, Johnson shared a selfie of him wearing his Apple Vision Pro during
an infusion, and other users chimed in to share where theyΓÇÖd brought their
own headsets to pass the time: four-hour dialysis sessions; chemo; a hospital
stay in the isolation ward. Whether a person is playing games, watching a
movie or using an app to calm down, people ΓÇ£need a distraction, something
that they enjoy,ΓÇ¥ Johnson said. ΓÇ£Ultimately, if youΓÇÖre in that type of
environment, you want to distract yourself from the pain.ΓÇ¥

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-
vr/vr-is-helping-to-make-daunting-medical-treatments-more-bearable-for-
patients-161505375.html?src=rss

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