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VA Staff member places VR headset on man

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Virtual Reality for Radiology Phobias

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Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning’s (OHIL) VA Immersive team utilizes virtual reality (VR) to reduce stress and improve relaxation in Veterans with fear and anxiety related to radiology procedures. The VR-based experience allows Veterans to practice completing an MRI session and/or learn mindfulness and relaxation techniques to help reduce anxiety. These experiences help minimize fear and uneasiness, while also teaching helpful skills.

This innovation is replicating across multiple facilities as its impact continues to be validated. See more replicating innovations.

Adoptions:

5 successful

Partners:

XR Network

VA Staff member places VR headset on man

Tags:

Access to Care Radiology VA Immersive Whole Health
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Overview

Problem

Many Veterans suffer from radiology procedure-related phobias, which limits their quality of care. The causes of these phobias vary with the individual, but to improve evaluation rates, patient experience and overall outcomes, VA Immersive looks to address these phobias to enhance care experience.

Solution

OHIL’s VA Immersive team, in collaboration with five VA Medical Centers, is evaluating the use of VR to address phobias and increase coping skills for anxiety related to radiology procedures. This allows VA to offer unique, personalized adoptions for Veterans with radiology-related phobias. Veterans can manage their fears in very low risk, controlled environ ... See more

Results

This is an ongoing pilot effort with early evaluation results pending fall of 2023.

Metrics

  • Pre to post Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDs) scores
  • Medication utilization
  • Veteran and clinician experiences

Diffusion tracker

Does not include Clinical Resource Hubs (CRH)

Statuses

FL: Malcom Randall Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Gainesville) MI: Aleda E. Lutz Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Saginaw, Michigan) PA: H. John Heinz III Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Heinz) UT: George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Salt Lake City) VA: Hampton VA Medical Center (Hampton)

There are no in-progress adoptions for this innovation.

There are no unsuccessful adoptions for this innovation.

Implementation

Core Resources

Resource type Resource description
TOOLS
  • XR Health Off-line VR headset and related platform/experiences
  • Electrodermal Response Sensor

Contact

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About

Origin story

Veterans often need radiology procedures, such as MRIs, but also may fear the experience of the procedure. Through both in vivo exposure and offering complementary relaxing environments in VR, VA can improve the Veteran experience by decreasing anxiety, while retaining adherence to radiology appointments.

Search tags

Access to Care Radiology VA Immersive Whole Health