by Dot Cannon
“I am so humbled and thrilled,” said Drs 2.0 Founder Denise Silber on Thursday morning, during Cedars-Sinai’s second annual Virtual Medicine conference.
“I became interested in these technologies twenty years ago, to give (the patient a voice). I have been frustrated, until VR.
“VR is the game-changer.”
And as Day Two of Virtual Medicine 2019 continued in Los Angeles, she would explore exactly what that meant.
As moderator of the “Patient Panel”, she would discuss firsthand experiences with four patients who had used medical VR for pain alleviation.
First, she asked her panel: “What is your experience with pain?”
“I’ve had several heart attacks from stress,” answered American Chronic Pain Associate Patient Advocate Tom Norris, who is a retired USAF Colonel.
“I have cerebral palsy,” replied Patient Advocate Jason Lieberman. “That’s basically what I do, help other people through my own experiences. (I traveled here from New York City yesterday, and I’m taking the red-eye back.)”
“I’m a very optimistic person,” said Patient Advocate Harmon Clarke. “(Pain) is my superpower, because it reminds me of the beauty of the world.”
“I come from entertainment,” contributed The Invisible Studios owner Mark Holden. “I feel that entertainment is such an amazing way to separate people from their pain.”
Pro-active plus VR equals healing
Jason told everyone that he had had seven surgeries in the last nine years. The last one, he added, had been for a hiatal hernia, and he now had seven holes in his stomach.
“It makes it hard to sit up,” he said. “I was basically a two-by-four. They had to tilt me on a table (so I could) eat.”
Boredom, he continued, added to the misery.
“You do two hours of therapy in rehab, and the rest, you’re staring at the walls. That’s the worst feeling in the world.”
Then, Jason said, he took action.
“I told doctors, ‘you’ve got to do something, because I’m not going in a nursing home.'”
The staff then supplied him with a VR headset. The results were dramatic.
“Each day, I would do VR, then exercises. At the end of one week, after not being able to move at all, I was able to go home.”
VR, clarity and pain relief
Mark, meanwhile, told the group that he had had a tibia fracture in September.
“I actually used a little bit of meditation in the trauma ward,” he said.
And Virtual Medicinc Conference Co-Director Dr. Brandon Birckhead approached him with an offer to let him use the VR.
“He asked (afterwards) if I wanted to take it home,” Mark said. “I said, ‘Absolutely.'”
Mark said he’d used the medical virtual reality from Day One. “I tried to use it four or five times a day, along with breathing.”
“(With the VR), I had a focus that was not there when I was on the meds.”
“I will admit that I’m a nerd,” Tom said. “I’ve been an avid reader since I learned to read.”
One of his favorite series, he added, was Nick Carter, Master Spy. And Nick was able to use yoga breathing.
Inspired, Tom taught himself to do yoga breathing–from reading about it. The breathing, he said, helped him deal with traumatic events in his life.
Then, one day, he was talking with Cedars-Sinai Director of Health Services Research Dr. Brennan Spiegel, who is also co-director of the Virtual Medicine Conference.
“One of the things Dr. Spiegel said was, ‘Are you interested in VR?'”
Dr. Spiegel gave him a headset, which he took home. The VR, Tom said, helped him through the pain of breaking four ribs, and helped him deal with stress.
Room for improvement
But, of course, like any other solution, medical VR is no panacea.
“One (of our goals) is to present the limitations of the technology,” Ms. Silber told the panel.
Harmon said he found it awkward sometimes.
“I would take the VR kit every time I had to go to the ER. It was a little clunky, and hard to get into the virtual world.”
Meanwhile, Harmon added, hospitals are fast-paced.
“Nurses don’t have time to wait for you to (get into the virtual experience). (So I’d suggest) speed, and maybe a support group. When I took (the kit) to the hospital, the battery was dead.”
In response to this particular question, Mark reached into his pocket–and pulled out a list! His fellow panelists laughed.
Among the problems he’d noted: sight and sound transitions.
“Some of the glitches pulled me out very quickly, and then the pain came back,” he said.
In addition, he said, programs or experiences tended to fade out quickly, or end abruptly.
“A lot of those issues have (now) been addressed in the newer (technology) I saw.”
“I’d like to see it advance to where, if you finish one level, you’re getting somewhere,” Jason said. “Part of being hospitalized is this feeling that you’re not making progress fast enough.”
Jason also added a suggestion for improvement in one particular type of VR experience.
“In some of the beach scenes, there’s music, so you don’t feel like you’re really at the beach.”
“VR is ineffective when I’m in a crisis,” Tom said. “All I want to do is shut down. That’s probably when I need it the most.
“When I am in the depths of brain fog, it’s impossible for me to use (it).”
Towards effective distribution
“How would you guys imagine we could speed up distribution of this?” Ms. Silber asked.
“I was so gung-ho to use anything,” Jason replied. “I was trying to get my doctors to talk about it at a brain injury conference a couple of weeks ago.
“I don’t know if they did or not. If people don’t know about it (it won’t be available in the hospitals).”
“Patient advocacy,” Harmon said. He explained that, as he recovered from osteomyelitis surgery, a nurse had shown him a video of a girl with an osteo bag, running a marathon.
“For me, seeing a patient using a tool (was effective).”
“I”ve been a facilitator for 20 years now,” Tom said. “I took the VR hood to a meeting and it was like candy.
“Doctors can push, but patients need to pull.”
And as the panel concluded, Jason offered a suggestion for the future.
“Go to the people who have money,” he said. “I’m going to throw out the idea to (Virtual Medicine Conference co-director) Dr. Spiegel, (to see if he and his team could do that and create some new VR modules.)”
That suggestion may very well lead to some exciting updates! Stand by for Cedars-Sinai’s 2020 Virtual Medicine conference–and a look at the next chapter.