What You Should Know:
– Massachusetts General Hospital (“MGH”) announced a research agreement with Rocket VR Health, an emerging digital therapeutics company developing clinically validated virtual reality therapies that enhance the quality of life of cancer patients, their families and their caregivers.
– The research will study the effects of daily Virtual Reality Therapy’s effect on patients during their entire hospital stay.
Partnership Details
The average hospital length of stay for patients with hematologic malignancies who undergo HCT is approximately 28 days. During this intense hospitalization period, patients can’t leave their rooms as their immune system is weakened while their bone marrow is re-generated. As a result, with no contact with the outside world, these patients endure significant short-term and long-term distress that affects their quality of life (QOL) and their physical and psychological well-being – both in the near term and long-term.
As part of the agreement, Rocket VR Health will leverage its virtual reality therapy platform to co-develop a VR digital therapeutic solution based on population-specific well-researched care interventions created by Massachusetts General Hospital. This Digital Therapeutic Solution is intended to help with distress management in blood cancer patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) in an in-clinic setting. HCT can be used to treat certain types of cancer, such as leukemia, myeloma, and lymphoma, and other blood and immune system diseases that affect the bone marrow.
The treatment being developed consists of 7 modules integrating psychoeducation, therapy and relaxation exercises offered over a 4-week period in beautiful virtual reality (VR) environments designed to be self-administered by patients while they are in their transplant rooms after an initial assistance and on-boarding help from a nurse or other healthcare professional. The immersive environments, imagery, sounds and music included in the Rocket VR Health platform allow patients to access the outside world virtually while being confined to their hospital room.
