How a Montreal hospital is using VR and music to transform patient care

Ginette Thomas went to St. Mary’s hospital on Wednesday for a routine physician’s appointment, however what she skilled went far past that.

Inside seconds, she was someplace else solely — inside a totally immersive digital actuality live performance.

“It’s stress-free,” mentioned Thomas. “It makes you let go of every thing and go someplace else.”

The digital actuality live performance venture goals to reveal the potential — and advantages — of musical intervention in a health-care atmosphere.

Led by geriatrician and researcher, Dr. Julia Chabot, and that includes the work of internationally famend Quebec pianist and composer Alexandra Stréliski, the venture is supposed to discover how immersive experiences and music can cut back stress, ache and enhance emotional well being.

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“We did a small pilot venture with digital actuality live shows, earlier than doing the one with Alexandra Stréliski, we did mini live shows to attempt it and see if it labored with our sufferers,” mentioned Chabot. “And sufferers who acquired the digital actuality intervention versus our management room reported much less ache.

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The center of the expertise is music designed to emotionally transfer sufferers, each emotionally and bodily, out of their environment.

“It transports you for 10-Quarter-hour and that’s actually highly effective, in the event you’re in a hospital room or in the event you’re in ache daily,” she mentioned. “I feel it might alleviate somewhat bit.”

Chatbot hopes the venture is simply the tip of the iceberg.

The purpose is to broaden the venture all through your entire hospital inside the 12 months and produce in additional musicians, genres and, Chabot says, hopefully extra hospitals.

“I can prescribe drugs to sufferers however there’s nothing that I can provide to sufferers that may have such an immediate impact, that they’ll say ‘Wow, that made me really feel actually, actually good,’” mentioned Chabot.

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