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Why use VR as physical
therapy in rehab?
"VR motivates us to do things that we might not be able to do"
For one thing, it’s simply a lot more fun than traditional rehabilitation exercises. And “V.R. has this uncanny ability to kind of nudge the human brain in ways that other audiovisual media cannot,” said Dr. Spiegel, who is one of the foremost experts on the use of virtual reality in health. “The bottom line is it motivates us to do things that we might not be able to do.”[1]
Virtual reality (VR) technology provides a training environment similar to the real world and meaningful task-oriented training, and can improve patients' quality of life. VR can be an effective and engaging way to improve upper or lower extremity coordination and balance during physical therapy, and may be particularly useful for patients with neurological diagnoses such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, cervical myelopathy, and spinal cord injury. VR technology can also quantify the patient's functional status before and after rehabilitation.
Additionally, VR-based physical therapy has the additional benefits of improved access through a home-based approach, ease of use, improved engagement and patient adherence through "gamification," increased uniformity in interventions administered, and the ability to remotely monitor compliance and progress with therapy. Overall, VR is a useful tool in rehabilitation due to its unique benefits and potential to improve outcomes[2][3].
1 - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/health/virtual-reality-therapy.html
2 - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34315320
3 - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32531906/
Central Florida company using virtual reality to help physical therapy patients finish treatment
