How Virtual Reality Can Help Kids Through Doctor Appointments

A ROUTINE TRIP TO THE doctor's office for a flu shot or blood test can cause nervousness and anxiety. Any parent or person who works with children understands this from first-hand experience. When it comes to our children, medical procedures involving needles can result in frustration, tearful outbursts or worse. So imagine the enormous fear and stress experienced by families whose children must endure frequent needle sticks to survive.



But it doesn't have to be this way. Parents, as well as medical experts, have long used distraction techniques effectively to comfort young patients. For infants, swaddling or dipping a pacifier in sugar water often works well. Toddlers and young children are often distracted with music, books, toys or tablets. Older children sometimes want to be a part of the process and learn why it's important to receive the shot or test.

For children born today who can figure out how to use tablets before they can walk, the bar to engage and distract has been raised. An educational video during a procedure does not provide the level of distraction to ensure a positive patient experience or reduce stress. In the world of artificial intelligence and virtual reality that they've been born into, my hope is that we can utilize this technology to actually make their lives better in significant ways. For example, we're learning that VR could be a game changer for children who endure frequent medical interventions.

I have found that when working with leading-edge technology like VR, it's sometimes easy to become lost in an excited frame of mind that lends itself to a haphazard application of technology, with the goal of just being able to say you're using a technology buzzword in vogue on that particular day. There are so many shiny, news things out there: augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and artificial intelligence. But through the noise and chatter of the next "big thing," we keep in mind that these buzzwords only enrich people's lives when they're used properly and with a vision of helping people be better.

It's not about the technology; rather, it's about helping people. And a technology buzzword alone has never helped anyone.

At the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, we understand that it's not the hammer alone, but what you build with the hammer that matters to people. It's not VR; it's how it's designed and put into practice that helps patients and parents in their moments of need.

That's exactly what we set out to do with our first-of-its-kind VR platform called Voxel Bay, a fun game system that provides patients with an immersive environment of penguins, pirates and dragons during infusions and other procedures. We've brought buzzword technology into a clinic, and the magic is that no one in the room needs to be a technology aficionado to use and enjoy it. The technology moves to the background while the patient, parent and practitioner are given a first-class experience that they don't expect in a hospital.

Creating this system wasn't easy. We had to invent and blaze trails along the way to bring it to life in clinic. For example, whether it's getting an infusion, a blood draw or lab work, these patients really can't use their hands. So we had you build our own VR hardware and games specifically for our patients and families. Our gaming system features custom, fun games that provide a way children can play the VR games using their head movements and deep breaths. An added bonus of the deep breathing feature is that it helps with relaxation.


The headsets are also built for purpose and are a fun part of the experience. They are lightweight and resemble a dragon based on one of the characters in the game. Because they're disposable, there's no need to worry about sanitizing the headsets from one patient to the next. The games are loaded onto smartphones, so they're wireless, and nurses or families can follow the progress of the games by watching a tablet and adjust if the patient needs more distraction.



(COURTESY OF NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL)

In their adventures throughout Voxel Bay, young patients can virtually snorkel through a series of different islands. They can elect to take a relaxing journey or stop and play a mini game like stealing pirate treasure or helping a lost baby penguin. Through VR, they're more distracted and less likely to fidget than they would be if they were passively watching a video.

We hope to provide young patients in other areas of our hospital, and other hospitals around the country, with the benefit of this transformative experience. And at this hospital, we've been overjoyed to hear laughter instead of tears coming from some of our treatment rooms.

Our long-term dream is to create a future where kids and parents aren't afraid to go to the doctoranymore. With the use of tools like what we've created in Voxel Bay, we see a world where children may not need sedatives or pain killers for routine procedures. Rather, we envision kids and families going to the doctor and learning a lifetime of coping skills, skills that provide resilience without the use of medications. In the end, we will create a world where a child's first memory of going to the doctor is one where they went to a remarkable fantasy land and rode on the back of a dragon, all in a place called Voxel Bay.

For these kids and families, Voxel Bay changes their world, both virtually and literally. Observing Voxel Bay in action is a magical experience unto itself, and I've seen it change the world for children and parents one encounter at a time. For them, the hospital will never be the same.

For them, their world is now changed for the better.

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