Games and interactive experiences in the healthcare field are specialties of Denise Silber, a digital health and social media consulting expert, who discussed these technologies at HIMSS 2017.

Virtual reality spans across the care spectrum into pain relief, mental health, surgery and vision correction. These technologies, while still relatively new to the industry, have expanded by catering to both the needs of the patients and physicians. In her presentation, Silber explained the growth, barriers and implementation challenges facing virtual reality and gaming.

On the patient side of equation, individuals use virtual reality as an immersive technology to improve outcomes. The combination of panoramic 3D displays, surround sound and tactile feedback gives patients the impression of being in another world, which can relieve anxiety about a painful procedure or even reduce pain itself.

“A Swedish pharmacy team approached programs in virtual reality and together they offer the ‘happy place’ app,” explained Silber. “Available on the Oculus Rift, patients visit the virtual world to relieve pain. In Spain, they are using gamification in the opposite way, by helping elderly patients re-memorize their environment. In a virtual reality with sound, this person is able to see all the places he needs to go to in his home. Physicians in Los Angeles are also using this technology to quickly distract and relieve the pain of their patients.”

Aside from relieving pain, virtual reality can assist surgeons in the operating room. Silber recalls surgeons using Google Glass in surgery to project what they were seeing to others, advancing education. Snapchat in the operating room allows surgeons to share the operation with others in real-time. Immersing trainee surgeons in another surgeon’s reality could one day be a standard in medical education.

Around the globe, physicians are testing virtual reality to improve quality of care for patients, but barriers remain in rolling out the technology to the public. While more than 150,000 mobile applications are available, less than half have been downloaded. Many lack evidence showing their effectiveness. Additionally, many virtual reality apps were not intended for healthcare and require further development to comply with HIPAA.

In using Pokémon Go as an example, Silber explains that the integration of gamification of virtual reality boosts engagement. In apps like Citizen Science and My Health, My Choice, users came play games to fight cancer or change dials to see what works for them. While these innovations show promise in advancing the gamification and virtual reality space of healthcare, total implementation faces a long road.

Silber outlined needs for greater infrastructure at both the local and national scale, guidelines for the safe use and investments in improving technological skills of clinicians.