This blogpost from Denise Silber describes the patient panel at the Virtual Medicine conference. The session led the future co-founders of VRforHealth, Denise and Beth, to meet and set out on a journey together of creating a digital platform that would help accelerate awareness and use of therapeutic VR.
We wish to pay tribute to the Virtual Medicine conferences held at Cedars-Sinai, and in particular to their founder, Dr Brennan Spiegel, for his role in creating an academic conference that was laser-focused on the therapeutic uses of Virtual Reality and welcoming to patients and patient speakers. We thank Dr Brandon Birckhead and the outstanding team for bringing together such a great sampling of the people and organizations that are enabling this field to advance. Covid-19 cancelled the 2020 edition just a few weeks prior to its execution. We hope that the next VMed will return soon, whatever the form, and continue to shine.
The patient panel at Vmed19 was moderated by Denise Silber. The discussion led Beth Savoldelli in the audience to connect with her and for the discussion about what would become VRforHealth to begin. The panel was full of the meaningfulness of the speakers’ personal stories: Tom Norris, Jason Lieberman, Harmon Clarke Jr, Mark Holden.
Tom Norris, a retired air force colonel told of his experience in breaking the hold of extreme pain whether for himself or for other patients in groups he mentors. For Tom, VR was a logical next step, building on his experience with yoga breathing, an activity he had adopted from his literary hero, Nick Carter master spy. Tom first used VR with success on the pain and stress of four broken ribs.
Jason Lieberman, a patient advocate in cerebral palsy, traveled to LA from his home in NYC for the conference. He also coaches other members of the cerebral palsy community. Prior to VR, Jason could not move and was forced to “stare at the four walls” most of the day at a rehabilitation center. He used virtual reality to relax muscle rigidity and thus to go home to his family.
Harmon Clarke Jr was suffering from chronic, intermittent pain related to IBD, until VR. For, Harmon, his condition is his super power. His health experience with Virtual Reality took him from illness to wellness, enabled him to realize his dream of becoming a performer for traditional audiences and for patients.
Mark Holden, had suffered multiple fractures of his tibia. He found using VR to distance himself from his pain a very positive experience.
Five recommendations emerged from the conversation:
- Provide choice of scenario, location, sound in future VR programs
- Provide different levels of experience, based on the user’s progress
- Improve the transitions, the experience of entering and ending the VR session
- Consider filming the patient’s body while using VR, to better understand how it relaxes
- Encourage patients to explain VR to other patients with appropriate documents
We hope that patients and clinicians and VR technologists will be inspired by the patient stories from this panel. Join us on VRforHealth and help lead the movement forward.
To conclude: a great quote from Dr Brennan Spiegel
When used to recalibrate unhealthy perceptions, VR becomes a radical new therapy to improve quality of life
Dr Brennan Spiegel
