{"id":41898,"date":"2024-12-19T10:05:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T10:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/?p=41898"},"modified":"2025-01-15T11:22:39","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T11:22:39","slug":"childrens-hospital-los-angeles-uses-vr-tech-to-transform-minimally-invasive-procedures-for-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/2024\/12\/19\/childrens-hospital-los-angeles-uses-vr-tech-to-transform-minimally-invasive-procedures-for-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles uses VR tech to transform minimally invasive procedures for patients"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CHLA Interventional Radiology\u00a0team working to minimize negative medical experiences using virtual reality (VR) technology.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August, they hired Phoenix Hunt, CHLA\u2019s first embedded hospital VR technologist, to guide and support patients through their procedures using specially designed, procedure-specific VR games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn most health care contexts, VR has been used to support patients as a relaxation tool,\u201d said Joseph Miller, MD, MS, Director of Interventional Radiology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re applying these same types of technologies to pediatrics in a novel way to minimize anxiety, pain, and discomfort and even reduce anesthesia use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interventional radiology: An ideal VR use case<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most interventional radiology procedures only take a few minutes, but the prep time and setup are much more complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA 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,\u201d said Dr. Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the medications leave the patient\u2019s system, it can take several hours to fully recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a lot logistically for the patient – and for their family and care team – for what is ultimately a five-minute procedure -our goal is to reduce that footprint for everybody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VR as a therapeutic tool<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you put a headset on somebody in a health care setting, it can transform their mind and immerse them in a completely different environment,\u201d said Hunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt helps detach their anxieties from what they’re feeling and experiencing in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This phenomenon has been studied extensively by CHLA\u2019s Biobehavioral Pain Lab, led by Jeffrey Gold, PhD, whose research seeks to enhance the standard of care for anxious patients beyond administering medication to ease fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVR can help dampen the brain\u2019s pain receptors,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cYour body is so distracted with other stimuli that it kind of forgets to feel that anxiety or pain that you\u2019d be noticing previously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A nationwide search<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we were missing was not so much the technology itself,\u201d says Dr. Miller, reflecting on the early days of conceiving the program. \u201cIt was the person to help apply the technology in an individualized fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where Hunt came in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunt studied virtual-reality game design at Savannah College of Art and Design and was drawn to VR applications in health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more positive experiences I helped foster, the more I thought, \u2018This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 US hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve yet to encounter another hospital using VR to get patients through procedures with an embedded VR technologist,\u201d said Dr. Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The role is made possible by the financial support of the nonprofit Child\u2019s Play, which assists hospitals across the country in a variety of technology adoption initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It just so happened that the job posting coincided perfectly with Hunt\u2019s post-grad career search. He joined the team in August, and they treated their first patient using VR a month later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunt\u2019s role is evolving as the program evolves and expands, he explains, but most procedures happen as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI first spend some time with the patient to explain the process and get a feel for what game they may want to play,\u201d he says. CHLA\u2019s VR headsets are equipped with several programs depending on the age of the patient, their level of anxiety, and the type of procedure (some games require the patient to use only their eyes and a trigger button while keeping their head, arms, and torso still, while others enable the use of one arm or both).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, Hunt invites the patient to test-drive the game so they know what to expect. He adds that he personally tests out every game before offering it to a patient to minimize any day-of surprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the patient arrives at the procedure site and is outfitted with a VR headset, Hunt collaborates with the medical team to monitor their heart rate, anxiety level, and pain levels before, during, and after the procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end, I ask them if they\u2019d want to do this again, and if they preferred it to anesthesia,\u201d said Hunt. \u201cSo far, across the board, everyone has had overwhelmingly positive feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scaling VR at CHLA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany hospitals have VR headsets that just sit on the shelf because no one has any idea how to apply them,\u201d says Dr. Miller. \u201cOur missing piece at CHLA was Phoenix.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Hunt is the only person at CHLA implementing VR during procedures\u2014but the team has big plans to grow the program. \u201cWe\u2019re exploring all of the ways VR can be used across departments and patient populations,\u201d Dr. Miller said. \u201cIt’s not just for us, or even just for our patients\u2014creating additional resources to reduce the work burden on health care team members is a huge deal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to turn this program into a living, breathing resource for the entire hospital, where eventually care teams can request a VR technologist\u2019s assistance as needed,\u201d Hunt added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHLA Interventional Radiology\u00a0team working to minimize negative medical experiences using virtual reality (VR) technology. Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles\u2019 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. In August, they hired Phoenix Hunt, CHLA\u2019s first embedded hospital VR technologist, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":41900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,512,43,514,7889],"tags":[4418,6242,5167],"class_list":["post-41898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare","category-main-story-newsletter","category-top-stories","category-used","category-virtual-reality","tag-childrens-hospital-los-angeles","tag-healthtech","tag-virtual-reality"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42114,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41898\/revisions\/42114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}