Virtual Reality Trail Helps Chemo Anxiety

Chemotherapy is one of the most traumatic issues for cancer patients. The treatment and its side effects can be debilitating for many, even with the best of relaxation strategies and anti-nausea medicines. Presently patients are served food, given reading materials and the use of movies or television as a distraction. But what if it was possible to actually “escape” to another place.

A team of multimedia entrepreneurs from Argentina are testing a product they hope will greatly aid patients during treatment. Gonzalo Sierra, Juliette Pineiro and Fabio Cimmarusti have developed a program to help chemo patients temporarily escape their hospital beds. Similar to relaxation techniques and meditation practices, it relaxes the patient and literally transforms them to another time and place.

Since 2016, they have been creating films in locations spanning from Patagonia to Iguazu. As the team states, “Virtual Reality allows you to be ‘telepresent’ in digital landscapes.” Instead of imagining yourself in a beautiful place, they virtually transport you there. They have been testing their films and VR headsets at public hospitals in Buenos Aires and the results have been dramatic.

Not only did they reduce the patient’s anxiety and distracted them from pain, the doctors and nurses felt it helped them do their job more effectively. An unexpected result was that patients became more social. They began sharing experiences and some even began laughing.

The research has now also spread to a hospital in Neuquen, a city in Southern Argentina. Their goal is to collect more data and to continue to expand the program.

More information about the program can be found at: www.machi.tech.