College of California, San Francisco S.O.L.V.E. Well being Tech and AppliedVR Publish Analysis Assessing Digital Actuality Readiness for Treating Continual Ache in Security-Internet Settings

Qualitative research has shown that VR interventions are a useful, scalable, and attractive alternative to existing pain management approaches for Medicaid populations, but reimbursement challenges are a major obstacle

LOS ANGELES, Sep 29, 2021 – (BUSINESS WIRE) – AppliedVR, a pioneer driving the next generation of digital medicine, and SOLVE Health Tech, a health justice incubation partner embedded in the University of California, San Francisco Announced today results of a collaborative research project that identifies barriers and facilities for the use of Virtual Reality (VR) for pain management in vulnerable populations such as Medicaid patients.

Virtual Reality offers an immersive experience that can improve the lives of people with chronic pain. Users follow a science-based immersive VR programming curriculum to relieve their chronic pain and help them learn pain management skills in the real world.

Overall, the AppliedVR and UCSF study found that providers treating underserved populations can incorporate VR as a scalable, low-risk alternative to managing chronic pain, with potential for high patient satisfaction and engagement.

The study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, included interviews with current VR users and non-users from academic, community, and safety net health systems (n = 15) using AppliedVR’s clinically proven VR platform.

The research also provided critical insights into the issues the healthcare industry needs to address to bring the latest digital medicines like VR into the hands of less well-served and diverse patient populations. Many technology implementation challenges are more pronounced in underserved health systems.

“There is a tremendous unmet need in the US to bring evidence-based digital therapeutics to the wider population, and virtual reality for pain management is of great interest to frontline pain therapists and a leadership role in health safety nets,” said Urmimala Sarkar, MD, MPH, UCSF Professor of Medicine and Co-Founder of SOLVE Health Tech. “But it will take cross-industry collaboration to overcome the hurdles that stand in the way of wider adoption, including payers commitments to more reimbursements and customized content tailored to the needs of different populations.”

The story goes on

In UCSF-AppliedVR research, both users and non-users have identified the lack of reimbursement from VR as one of the biggest challenges for adoption. Current users cited positive patient feedback, but safety net stakeholders indicated that existing VR content may need to be more relevant or engaging to a more diverse patient population.

Additionally, all respondents cited the challenge of integrating and maintaining VR with current pain management workflows in a range of clinical settings, but this adoption challenge is particularly acute due to resource and staffing constraints in safety net environments.

The UCSF and AppliedVR study is one of the first to assess how providers caring for vulnerable populations, such as Medicaid benefit recipients, could incorporate VR into pain management approaches. For the future, Dr. Sarkar to test the usability of VR for patients who are often underrepresented in clinical trials

“Our goal is to make VR the standard in pain management for everyone, and research like this is critical to understanding how we can create more user-friendly, affordable, and fair treatment programs,” said Josh Sackman, president and co-founder of AppliedVR. “The COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the health inequalities that have existed in our country for years, so digital medicine shouldn’t be the latest innovation falling into the same trap. What use are billions of investment funds flowing into digital health? what if very little of it reaches the people who need it most? “

As an evidence-based provider of VR in healthcare, AppliedVR is committed to building broader evidence showing that VR can reduce chronic pain as well as lower healthcare costs. The company recently received the breakthrough device designation from the FDA for its EaseVRx solution. It conducts several studies with payers to determine reimbursement.

About AppliedVR

AppliedVR is pioneering the next generation of digital medicines to deliver safe and effective virtual reality therapeutics (VRx) that address unmet needs and improve clinical outcomes for patients with serious health problems. Its evidence-based, non-invasive treatments immerse and engage patients for measurable clinical outcomes. As the most widely adopted and most thoroughly researched VR therapeutic platform, AppliedVR is the first to make VR therapeutics widely available in clinical care and has examined more than 60,000 patients in more than 200 hospitals. AppliedVR has established world-class research and trade partnerships and continues to build infrastructure to accelerate the mass adoption of VRx. To learn more about AppliedVR, Inc. visit https://appliedvr.io/.

About UCSF

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is entirely focused on health sciences and is dedicated to advancing health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes UCSF Health, which includes three world-class hospitals, as well as subsidiaries across the Bay Area. Find out more at https://www.ucsf.edu or take a look at our fact sheet.

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contacts

Sam Moore
press@appliedvr.io