Jan 29,2024 TOP STORY

Orion licenses digital pain therapeutic from Newel Health

Finland’s Orion Corp has entered into a licensing agreement with digital therapeutics (DTx) specialist Newel Health, handing over rights to an app designed to support patients with chronic pain. Newel gains exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialise the app, called Rohkea or ODD-403, which uses virtual reality to deliver a gamified treatment programme for chronic pain that specifically aims to address patients’ fear of movement and re-injury. Rohkea – a Finnish word meaning brave or bold – encourages patients with chronic pain to navigate a virtual, open-world landscape using their whole bodies, carrying out tasks such as writing or drawing on an easel, picking fruit, packing fitting items into a box, and solving puzzles using physical movements. The idea is that engagement with the game elements in a VR setting distracts patients from the risk of pain, allowing them to increase both the intensity and range of movement they can manage over time. Newel Health – which is supported by the venture capital arm of pharmaphorum parent, Healthware Group – is best known for its wearable and artificial intelligence-driven DTx for Parkinson’s disease, Soturi, which is being tested in a clinical trial to see if it can be used to enhance the efficacy of Parkinson’s therapies. Soturi was developed in collaboration with Orion, so, the new licensing deal consolidates the relationship between the two companies.

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Jan 09,2024

Mynd Immersive Unveils the Great American Elderverse at CES 2024 with AT&T, HTC VIVE, and CTA Foundation

Mynd Immersive has launched the Great American Elderverse, a pioneering virtual reality (VR) therapeutics initiative aimed at enhancing the lives of older adults. Supported by collaborations with AT&T, HTC VIVE, and the CTA Foundation, the campaign will introduce VR experiences to over 500 underserved senior care communities. The Elderverse offers a virtual destination promoting mental, physical, emotional, and cognitive health, allowing seniors to explore diverse activities from the safety of their communities. The philanthropic project encourages contributions to expand the transformative VR experiences to more senior care communities nationwide.

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Dec 19,2023

CMS Funded Study Shows Great Promise for Indiana-Based American Senior Communities

American Senior Communities (ASC), based in Indiana, has partnered with Mynd Immersive to combat isolation and loneliness among aging residents through a CMS-funded program implemented in 15 skilled nursing facilities. Launched in August 2023, the initiative aimed to improve overall quality of life, particularly by addressing isolation, with a target of 60% increased socialization. Initial outcomes reported to CMS and the Indiana Department of Health surpassed expectations, with 88% success in reducing isolation, an 88% improvement in socialization, and 91% of residents using VR recommending it to others. Mynd Immersive offers a range of interactive experiences to enhance emotional, physical, behavioral, cognitive, and spiritual health for the aging population. ASC emphasizes the positive impact on both staff and residents, highlighting the scalability and cost-effectiveness of deploying Mynd across multiple communities. Mynd Immersive also collaborated with Stanford University on a study exploring the positive relationship impact between older adults and caregivers using its platform.

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Nov 16,2023 TOP STORY

BehaVR and Fern Health Merge To Form RealizedCare, Launch Digital Care Management Platform to Unlock the Value of Digital Therapeutics

BehaVR and Fern Health announced the signing of an agreement to merge their businesses and create a new digital care management solution for chronic pain. The new offering will be branded as RealizedCare, and strives to meet the increased demand for evidence-based, more scalable, impactful and economically viable solutions for a range of mental and behavioral health burdens, beginning with chronic pain. Grünenthal, a global research-based pharmaceutical company and parent company of Fern Health, has partnered with RealizedCare as a strategic investor, delivering on its shared vision of a world free of pain. RealizedCare will work with health plans, employers and value-based providers to identify, assess and engage members with chronic pain via a fully managed solution. With RealizedCare, members and patients are guided through a personalized care journey, receive digital interventions, are connected to a community with lived experience of chronic pain and can be referred directly to clinicians when necessary.

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Nov 08,2023

Groundbreaking Study Indicates Virtual Reality Can Enhance Relationships Between Caregivers and Aging Population

Virtual Reality (VR) is paving the way for enhancing relationships between the aging population and their caregivers, as research from the Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) at Stanford University demonstrates. The study sought to understand older adults' attitudes towards new technologies, including virtual reality, and how professional caregivers felt about facilitating VR experiences for older adults. Research was led by Dr.Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the VHIL and one of the world's leading experts on understanding and exploring individual behavior and social responses in VR, and Ryan Christopher Moore, Ph.D. researcher. Key findings include that 81.5% of caregivers reported?they enjoyed interacting with residents more while using Mynd Immersive (Mynd), formerly MyndVR than while doing other activities, and 94.9% said that using Mynd was moderately to extremely beneficial to their relationship with the resident.

CLINICAL STUDY

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Nov 07,2023 TOP STORY

AppliedVR Releases Outcomes Data From the Largest Clinical Trial to Study Home-based Virtual Reality Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain

AppliedVR announced results from a large randomized controlled trial, evaluating virtual reality therapy for treating chronic low back pain at home. The study, which was published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Digital Health, found that AppliedVR's RelieVRx program produced clinically meaningful improvements in clinically severe and diverse adults with CLBP. Researchers concluded that the RelieVRx program was superior to a strong, active VR sham at Day 56 (completion of RelieVRx program) for reducing pain intensity and pain interference in a large real-world sample. Specifically, researchers found that study participants who completed the RelieVRx program achieved a reduction in pain intensity by an average of 2.0 points on a pain numerical rating scale, which asks people to rate their pain on a scale of zero to 10. The clinical study was the largest of its kind with a demographically diverse sample, including data from more than 1,000 participants (n=1,067) where approximately half were treated by the RelieVRx program over an eight-week period.

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Nov 06,2023 TOP STORY

Smileyscope Therapy is the First Virtual Reality Device to Receive FDA Class II Clearance for Acute Pain

Smileyscope has made history by becoming the first virtual reality (VR) device to receive FDA Class II clearance for acute pain. This approval recognizes Smileyscope's innovative Procedural Choreography™ technique, which uses positive virtual stimuli to reduce pain and anxiety during medical procedures. With this milestone, Smileyscope aims to revolutionize pain and anxiety management, partnering with hospitals and clinicians globally to enhance patient experiences and improve clinical workflows. FDA clearance included critical, independent evaluation of Smileyscope's patented Procedural Choreography™. Procedural Choreography is Smileyscope's proprietary technique that takes negative real-world stimuli (e.g. a needle) and replaces it with psychologically-preferable positive virtual stimuli (e.g. a friendly fish).

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Oct 17,2023 TOP STORY

Immersive Virtual Reality Seems to Ease Cancer Patients' Pain and Distress

Immersive virtual reality - digital technology that allows a person to experience being physically present in a non-physical world - seems to ease the pain and distress felt by patients with cancer, suggests a pooled data analysis of the available evidence published in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. The researchers trawled research databases for studies that looked at the use and effectiveness of immersive virtual reality for aiding psychological adjustment to a long term condition in adults. They found 31 relevant studies, published between 1993 and 2023, in which the technology had been used in patients with cancer (16), dementia (5), cardiovascular disease (4), MS (2), kidney disease (2), inflammatory bowel disease (1), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (1). Pooling the study results showed that patients were happy to use immersive virtual reality and that it helped those with cancer, dementia, cardiovascular disease, MS and kidney disease cope better with required medical treatments and the emotional impact of their condition. The types of virtual reality and procedures used varied widely across the included studies, and no one particular type emerged as noticeably more effective than any of the others.

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Aug 26,2023

Chula Vista Veterans Home to be First Recipients of Immersive VR Glasses Through BVL Grant

MyndVR, the leading provider of VR-based, digital therapeutic experiences for the aging population, has announced the deployment of virtual reality glasses to all eight Veterans Homes of California. The deployment of MyndVR technology is made possible by a grant from BVL (Bowlers to Veterans Link), a 501c3 charity dedicated to funding recreation therapy programs that address the emotional and physical needs of veteran and active-duty military personnel. The BVL grant was created to help deploy MyndVR technology through the innovative HTC Vive immersive glasses, to 50 state veterans homes across the United States. The California Department of Veteran Affairs (CalVet) is the third state veterans home group selected to receive the immersive technology. MyndVR distributes headsets to all eight CalVet locations statewide via $250,000 grant.

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Jul 20,2023 TOP STORY

AppliedVR and National Cancer Institute Collaborate on Research Evaluating Virtual Reality for Reducing Anxiety in Primary Brain Tumor Patients During Imaging Services

AppliedVR, in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), conducted a phase 2 clinical trial using virtual reality (VR) as an intervention for primary brain tumor patients, showing high feasibility and acceptability. VR therapy was found to positively impact patients' distress and anxiety levels.

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