SnowWorld melts away pain for burn patients, using virtual reality snowballs

Geekwire, 24/02/2018

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Beesens TEAM

SnowWorld melts away pain for burn patients, using virtual reality snowballs

"In a white, sterilized room in the burn ward of Shriners Hospitals for Children in Galveston, Texas, a physician meticulously removed staples from a teenage boy’s burn. The wound covered more a quarter of his body and would take years of pain therapy to heal. Normally, he would be shouting and squirming with each tug at the bandages, but not that day; his mind was far away from the hospital, immersed in an icy VR tundra called SnowWorld.
For more than 20 years, VR pioneers and pain specialists Hunter Hoffman and David Patterson, both researchers at University of Washington, have demonstrated VR’s unique ability to alleviate acute pain. With the opioid epidemic claiming tens of thousands of lives every year, physicians are increasingly turning to new approaches for the next effective acute painkiller and SnowWorld is one of the most successful examples yet..." Lire la suite