Emergency room gives you chills : try VR to relax!

Record ID: 1120664

  • Title: Emergency room gives you chills : try VR to relax!
  • Date: 8th June 2018
  • Summary: SCREEN OF LAPTOP MONITORING VR HELMET
  • Embargoed: 22nd June 2018 12:11
  • Keywords: virtual reality pain anxiety hospital emergency room hypnosis
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE / GRAPHICS
  • City: PARIS, FRANCE / GRAPHICS
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA0048JG7N0N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The pain is real but this patient is being relieved by being plunged into a virtual world. Emergency rooms can be daunting: the never-ending wait, the smells but mostly the anxiety and pain.
    The Parisian hospital of Saint-Joseph is pioneering virtual reality to help patients get through treatment without the usual stress.
    A new technique in France, emergency room chief Olivier Ganasia has for the past year been trying to find the best way to help adult patients undergo simple but sometimes painful procedures such as stitches, bandages for burns, shoulder dislocation or insertion of urinary catheter.
    "Virtual reality enables us to offer patients a technique to distract their attention" while also lowering doses of anaesthetics or painkillers, head of emergency room at Saint-Joseph hospital, Olivier Ganansia, said.
    Right before being treated, patients put a virtual reality helmet on. After several messages explaining the procedure and asking them to relax, the patient is then immersed in a relaxed environment he can fully discover accompanied by soothing music.
    The virtual reality software used has been created by French start-up Healthy Mind which has developed different animated worlds patients can evolve in such as Japanese gardens, calm forests or snowy mountains.
    The anxiety and pain relief patterns used through virtual reality are very close to hypnosis, an alternate technique once considered as wizardry and now fully integrated into protocols even for heavy and painful procedures in the operating room.
    "In ten years, virtual reality won't even be a question anymore and will be used routinely in hospitals," Ganansia said.
    Virtual reality has been strongly developed in the United States, with research mostly led by Mount Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, whereas it is only starting to attract attention in a country where generous public funding of healthcare is conducive to extensive tranquilliser use.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2018. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains computer game or software screenshots. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing this clip.
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