Research: Using virtual reality to help pulmonary disease patients
Technology has helped vulnerable people continue rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Summary
Research summary
This project is helping vulnerable patients with chronic lung conditions to get supervised treatment at home using virtual reality (VR).
Timely rehabilitation for pulmonary conditions greatly reduces hospital admission rates and can help patients live longer.
But the COVID-19 pandemic severely restricted access to clinics, due to the need for social distancing and the spike in COVID-related hospitalisations.
General practitioners in Staffordshire and North Lincolnshire designed and commissioned a method of continuing rehabilitation using technology, which has been developed by Concept Health Technologies working with Manchester Met’s Creative AR VR Hub.
Patients are given headsets and sensors to wear while exercising, which allows them to safely interact with medical staff and be monitored.
Since its launch last year, more than 240 patients have completed VR treatments at home. Results show the project has improved their mental and physical health as well as helping them to stick to rehabilitation plans - cutting hospital admission and death rates.
This is the first VR pulmonary rehabilitation service to be deployed by the NHS on a large scale in the UK. It is now being evaluated for treating patients with long COVID.
PR in VR - see how it works
BBC News explains how the PR in VR project is helping to improve the health of participating patients.Research outputs
Journal article
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Jung, T, Moorhouse, N, Shi, X and Amin, MF (2020). A Virtual Reality-Supported Intervention for Pulmonary Rehabilitation of Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Mixed Methods Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2020 Jul 7;22(7):e14178
Conference presentation
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Jung, T et al (2021) Effects of Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Virtual Reality for COPD Patients, at the 7th International AR VR Conference, Lisbon
News stories
Team
Research team
Lead researcher
Co-researchers
Collaborating with:
Funding
With funding from
North Lincolnshire CCG
Concept Health Technologies
Staffordshire CCG
Contact
Contact us
For general enquiries about our Digital Transformation knowledge platform, Creative AR-VR hub or this project, you can contact lead researcher Prof Timothy Jung.
