Virtual Reality is gaining an increased interest for use-cases in healthcare. One of the main use-cases is through distracting Virtual Reality experiences, decreasing pain, anxiety and stress with patients in healthcare. In just one year, SyncVR Medical has implemented VR in 15 Danish and 5 Swedish hospitals in over 30 departments. Implementations range from small scale feasibility pilots to several randomized controlled trials which show the effectiveness of VR in healthcare.  VR is being adopted widely by the Scandinavian healthcare system!

The SyncVR Medical platform is the first CE certified VR medical device in Scandinavia. Through a tight collaboration with hospitals, Virtual Reality has been accepted, integrated and used as a new tealthtech in the Scandinavian healthcare system and will be scaled up even further. Two use-cases:

Aarhus University Hospital - Line Kjeldgaard Pedersen (orthopedic surgeon, MD, PhD)

At the pediatric orthopedic surgery department of Aarhus UH, we saw an opportunity for VR to decrease pain and anxiety during procedures. To validate this technology, we’ve conducted a randomized controlled trial to study the effect of VR (active and passive) on the Pressure Pain Threshold (PPT) of children, vs. a non-immersive tablet and a control period. The results show that the pain threshold of children doubles with active VR and also significantly increases with passive VR. In addition, the level of anxiety of the children are significantly lowered in both VR modalities. This is an amazing and groundbreaking result, validating the use of VR in children and will lead to a decrease in the need for pain medication. Line says: “I really believe that VR is a health technology that will stay and scale up even further. I see it in practice how it really helps my patients with handling their pain and anxiety better and I see so many more use-cases. This technology will really change healthcare!”

Bispebjerg Hospital - Charlotte Rahbek Norup (head nurse)

At the Emergency Room in Bispebjerg Hospital, we implemented VR to distract patients during small procedures in the ER. In the first phase, we conducted a pilot with 30 patients and the results were overwhelming! It has such an incredible effect on our patients and their wellbeing! 92% of parents and children stated they ‘very much agree’ that it was a great experience, 80% of the nurses stated they ‘very much agree’ that it made their work more calm and 92% of patients ‘agree’ or ‘very much agree’ that VR decreased their pain. Charlotte says: “We are very impressed by this VR technology, it really improves the quality of life of patients, but also for our staff. We cannot do without anymore! There was even a TV item about it on TV2Lorry (link)”. Brian Holch Kristensenn (innovation manager) says: “We plan to scale up the use of VR throughout other parts of the hospital as well. We are very happy with the first results at the ER and we see many more uses-cases, also for decreasing loneliness of patients”.