This post and podcast episode are for informational purposes only, and are not intended as medical advice.  Please contact a healthcare professional with any health-related questions.

Could virtual reality be effective as a treatment for chronic pain?  Or as therapy for PTSD?  As a way to combat phobias?  Or even as a means of preventive medicine?

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According to Dr. Brennan Spiegel’s new book, VRx: How Virtual Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine, the answer is, “very possibly”.  It may also be, “very soon.”

In VRx, Dr. Spiegel, who is Director of Health Services Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, explores numerous areas of medicine in which he and his fellow medical professionals are implementing the technology into the healing process.    Cedars-Sinai currently has one of the largest virtual-medicine programs in the world, with new innovations forthcoming.

And some of these uses are absolutely mind-blowing.

Psychologists are looking at helping patients combat depression through the use of digital avatars.   Obstetricians are starting to offer VR experiencesan alternative to an epidural.  And Dr. Spiegel’s own experience includes management of chronic pain–both for his patients and for himself–through virtual reality.

Early in his book, Dr. Spiegel points out that virtual reality is not a panacea.   But he takes his readers on a journey, starting with his own first introduction to the technology in 2014.  From there, VRx explores the cases and research in the areas in which he’s seen it work effectively.

Dr. Spiegel (who is the founder of Cedars-Sinai’s annual Virtual Medicine conference, which we’ve had the pleasure of covering in the past) talked about his own journey from skeptic to virtualist, offered a look at some of the use cases in his book and previewed some exciting developments on the horizon. in the field of virtual medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

On this edition of Over Coffee®, we cover:

• What first inspired Dr. Spiegel to begin using virtual reality in his medical practice;

• One of the early experiences which he had with VR, and describes in his book;

• How VR is currently being used in therapy to treat anxiety;

• A look at one doctor’s use of virtual reality to help veterans with PTSD;

• How VR works to combat eating disorders, such as obesity and anorexia;

• And, a neuroscience explanation of why it works–to “fool” the brain!;

• A look at how VR can work in the brain alleviate pain;

• The story of one patient who used VR to control pain and wean himself off opiods;

• Some of the obstacles to widespread adoption of medical VR–and how the field is growing;

• An exciting new program, currently in the planning stages at Cedars-Sinai;

• One program which Dr. Spiegel developed with a congregation, covered in VRx, to help parishioners lower their blood pressure through VR;

• AND, how to find out more about upcoming free webinars and resources through Cedars-Sinai.

Would you like to hear medical-VR findings from the top four winners in Cedars-Sinai’s international “Best Clinical VR Research of 2020” competition? They’ll be presenting their findings, live, on Tuesday, December 8th at 9:00 am, Pacific time.  Here’s the link for more information.