Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Uses Virtual Reality to Transform Minimally Invasive Procedures for Patients
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ Interventional Radiology team – one of the most universally visited specialties at the hospital – is working to minimize negative medical experiences using virtual reality (VR) technology. They have hired Phoenix Hunt, CHLA’s first embedded hospital VR technologist, to guide and support patients through their procedures using specially designed, procedure-specific VR games.
“In most healthcare contexts, VR has been used to support patients as a relaxation tool,” explained Joseph Miller, MD, MS, director of interventional radiology. “We’re applying these same types of technologies to pediatrics in a novel way to minimize anxiety, pain and discomfort and even reduce anesthesia use.”
Interventional radiology provides minimally invasive care in a variety of ways. The specialty uses medical imaging such as X-rays, CT scans, ultrasounds and MRIs to insert small devices – like catheters, IVs or wires – into the body or to perform biopsies.
Most interventional radiology procedures only take a few minutes, but the prep time and setup are much more complex.
“A patient who just needs something to ease the anxiety and discomfort of the procedure ends up having to go without eating all night so we can administer anesthesia in the morning,” explained Dr. Miller.
As the medications leave the patient’s system, it can take several hours to fully recover. “That’s a lot logistically for the patient – and for their family and care team – for what is ultimately a five-minute procedure,” he added. “Our goal is to reduce that footprint for everybody.”
“When you put a headset on somebody in a healthcare setting, it can transform their mind and immerse them in a completely different environment,” explained Hunt. “It helps detach their anxieties from what they’re feeling and experiencing in the real world.”
This phenomenon has been studied extensively by CHLA’s Biobehavioral Pain Lab, led by Jeffrey Gold, Ph.D., whose research seeks to enhance the standard of care for anxious patients beyond administering medication to ease fear.
Hunt studied virtual-reality game design at Savannah College of Art and Design and was drawn to VR applications in healthcare. “I was perfectly good at designing video games, but I realized I wanted to work in the clinical setting as soon as I started connecting with patients,” he explained. “The more positive experiences I helped foster, the more I thought, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’”
As Dr. Miller and the team finalized their vision for the VR technologist position, it became clear that CHLA would effectively create the blueprint for future U.S. hospitals. “We’ve yet to encounter another hospital using VR to get patients through procedures with an embedded VR technologist,” Dr. Miller said.
“Many hospitals have VR headsets that just sit on the shelf because no one has any idea how to apply them,” said Dr. Miller. “Our missing piece at CHLA was Phoenix.”
“We’re trying to turn this program into a living, breathing resource for the entire hospital, where eventually care teams can request a VR technologist’s assistance as needed,” Hunt added.
Dr. Miller and Hunt not only have an ambitious vision for VR technology within CHLA but also in hospitals across the world. “When I was in school and told people I wanted to explore VR applications in healthcare, almost everybody told me that it wouldn’t happen for at least another 10 years,” Hunt reflected. “But our work here proves it’s coming a lot faster than people think.”
Information for this article was sourced from BusinessWire.
