Dealing with stressful or traumatic medical procedures is about to get easier thanks to a collaboration between VRHealth and Oculus, which are bringing the latter’s VR headsets into hospitals to soothe uncomfortable patients. Ahead of today’s Oculus Connect 5 event, the companies announced that they’re using Go and Rift hardware to manage pain for mothers in labor, cancer patients in chemotherapy, and patients before and after surgery.
While it would be fairly easy to just pop a VR headset with a tropical beach scene on any struggling patient, VRHealth’s software is specifically geared towards providing a medical-grade experience for users. There will be three different options available for preorder, UploadVR reports, including:
- An Oculus Go-based pain management platform for hospitals designed to distract the wearer with visuals during chemotherapy and other uncomfortable treatments. This platform will start at $699 for a Go and tablet combination, with monthly fees of $89 and up depending on user needs.
- A version of the pain management platform designed for home use with a user-provided Oculus Go, with prices starting at $5 per month.
- A Go app with meditation and brain health exercises, focused on user wellness.
Beyond the patient experiences, VRHealth’s software includes cognitive testing and psychological assessment tools, paired with AI- and cloud-based analytical algorithms that can be used to assess patients either locally or from a remote environment. Data is sent in real time to a portal where — depending on the implementation — health care professionals, providers, payers, and patients can access it.
According to VRHealth, the company’s solutions have already rolled out to institutions including Stanford Sports Medicine, Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, Hoag Hospital Network, and Mass General Hospital’s Sports Medicine Center. Rift-based rehabilitation solutions are available at 30 U.S. locations.
