Prescription for Pain Virtual Reality Therapy

Explore virtual reality’s role in the management of chronic pain through immersive psychological and physiological therapy.
https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/video/josh-sackman?src=soc_yt
-TRANSCRIPT-
JOHN WHYTE: Welcome, everyone. I’m Dr. John Whyte, and I’m the Chief Medical Officer at WebMD. And you’re watching Your Health on Tech.

I bet you’ve used a virtual reality maybe at a birthday party, maybe in some type of sporting event. But what if I told you it can and will play a significant role in your health and health care? My guest today says now is the time.

I’m delighted to be joined by Josh Sackman. He’s the president and co-founder of AppliedVR. Josh, thanks for taking time today.

JOSH SACKMAN: Thanks for inviting me here. I’m excited for the conversation.

JOHN WHYTE: Josh, I feel like in many ways we’ve all have heard of VR. We’ve tried it here and there. But when it comes to health and health care, it’s been on the fringe. But you feel that’s going to change. Why is that?

JOSH SACKMAN: I’ll take you back to my first experience with VR because I think it’s important to understand why we’re talking about VR in health care. When I got introduced to virtual reality back in 2014, I was given this experience that we’ve since recreated and called the ledge. And the premise is this.

You put on a VR headset, you look around, you’re in the middle of a city, you look down, you’re in a window washing scaffold. And we bring you up 500 feet up the side of a building. The railing drops, and you’re given one simple task to take one confident step, 500 feet into the virtual air.

And as rational human beings, we should have no problem taking that virtual leap into the thin air. But because our brains haven’t really evolved to separate virtual from real, the heart starts racing. Every fiber of your being says don’t take this step.

Because I think I know where I really am, but if I’m not there major consequences. And this feeling is called presence. This feeling that you’re actually transported somewhere else. And it connects at a deep emotional non-conscious level. And so if you can transport people to other places and create deep authentic emotional connections, think of all the powerful things that you could do with that.

JOHN WHYTE: And you’re bringing it back to health, particularly in chronic pain. And I’m fascinated by a quote that I saw you gave recently. And I want to read it back to you, if I may. And you say, “We have an outdated chronic pain care model. Its overreliance on pharmaceuticals.

And that people don’t like pills. People don’t like injections. And we need to make treatment an enjoyable experience.”

Tell us more what you mean by that.

JOSH SACKMAN: I grew up with chronic pain. I had a congenital ligament issue that led to dislocated shoulders, and torn meniscus, and repeated procedures, and recoveries. And there was not a single part of that recovery that was in any way enjoyable.

And it wasn’t until I developed psychological coping skills and ability to self-regulate through experiences with psychologists, and physical therapists, and all these other professionals that taught me outside of the medical interventions which were absolutely necessary and a key part of my recovery. But I learned that the brain, the mind, the body, it’s so powerful when you learn to use it as a tool in your favor instead of resist against a lot of these things that we often struggle with.

And IASP, the International Association for the Study of Pain has since relabeled pain as not just a sensory experience, but as an emotional experience. And for those of us who have suffered with pain, mental health, or pretty much any type of illness, we know that our social construct where we are, who we’re surrounded by play a really important role in how we experience our condition.

And you don’t have to wait, in many cases, six months to see a pain specialist that you can put on a headset when you need it in the comfort of your own home. This unlocks a whole new potential for what health care looks like.

JOHN WHYTE: Well, what do you say to the cynics who are listening now? How can this help with high blood pressure? Could to help with hyperlipidemia?

Maybe I could see how it could help with anxiety. What’s your response to them? Because you’re conducting scientific studies around these issues.

JOSH SACKMAN: That’s right. Skepticism is so important and instrumental in health care. But ultimately, it comes down to we wanted virtual reality as a modality of treatment. And we wanted this to be accessible just like any other drug or medical device.

And so what does that look like? Doctor prescribed, insurance reimbursed, integrated into guidelines for how doctors think about treating patients? And so we took that as our future state. That’s where we wanted our ideal future to look like.

https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/video/josh-sackman?src=soc_yt