{"id":47409,"date":"2019-05-30T12:46:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T16:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/?p=47409"},"modified":"2020-09-23T14:31:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T18:31:02","slug":"virtual-reality-can-help-patients-go-on-a-getaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/healthy-tomorrows\/virtual-reality-can-help-patients-go-on-a-getaway\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual reality can help patients go on a getaway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> <em>Jennifer Shamess, former patient and member of the Cancer Care Patient and Family Advisory Council, tested out the virtual reality equipment<\/em>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine\nlooking out onto a mountain vista. You hear the birds chirping, you see the sun\nbeaming down on the mountain range, and you watch as butterflies float by. It\ndoesn\u2019t sound like a typical chemotherapy or radiation treatment, does it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With\nhelp from virtual reality (VR), patients undergoing cancer treatment at The\nOttawa Hospital could soon take a virtual getaway from their hospital beds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s good news for Jennifer Shamess, former patient and\nmember of the Cancer Care Patient and Family Advisory Council.&nbsp; She said that when she was at the hospital,\nshe was always dreaming of being somewhere else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"How virtual reality can help patients undergoing cancer treatment\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eZ73OQRE7n4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWith virtual reality, I would have had some help in escaping\nfor a few minutes,\u201d said Jennifer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr.\nJustin Sutherland, a medical physicist at The Ottawa Hospital and professor in\nthe Department of Radiology at The University of Ottawa, said that virtual\nreality can be an effective tool for cancer patients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all about\ntaking patients out of a potentially uncomfortable experience, and bringing\nthem somewhere pleasant,\u201d said Dr. Sutherland. \u201cIt tricks your brain into\nthinking you\u2019re there, which can improve one\u2019s mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Engineering\nstudents at The University of Ottawa teamed up with The Ottawa Hospital to\ndesign a simulation that cancer patients could experience during treatment.\nStudents worked together in groups as part of the Makerspace VR Challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p> \u201cI was impressed with every design\u201d  <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The students consulted with Jennifer and other Patient and\nFamily Advisors.&nbsp; Advisors made design\nsuggestions such as avoiding fast motions, bright colours and loud noises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each group delivered a unique virtual experience. The winning\ndesign, created by second year students, was a boat ride.&nbsp; Patients could customize certain features\nsuch as colour, movement and length of the ride to create a unique experience.\nOther designs featured studio meditations, hiking up a mountain, or floating in\nspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was impressed with every design,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cEach\ngroup carefully listened to the considerations that were important to us, and then\ntried to integrate them into a unique VR experience.\u201d \n\nPatients\naren\u2019t the only ones who could benefit from VR. Soon, cancer patients and their\nfamilies may be able to share the same immersive experience together.&nbsp; \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With help from virtual reality, patients undergoing cancer treatment at The Ottawa Hospital could soon take a virtual getaway from their hospital beds.  Engineering students consulted with patient advisors to design these high-tech escapes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":47429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13,381,483,378],"class_list":["post-47409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-tomorrows","tag-cancer","tag-patient-experience","tag-patients-as-partners","tag-virtual-reality"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}