Inventors: Dr. Gita Khalili Moghaddam, Clinical Neurosciences
Mentor: Dr. Alex Smeets
Dr. Modhaddam, founder of GlycoVue and TumourVue, is collaborating with Partizan International Ltd and Vision3 to develop new solutions to the problem of stress and pain during medical procedures.
The aim is to use virtual reality (VR) for children and adults to reduce the stress associated with waiting for and experiencing medical procedures. Initial trials will be carried out with pediatric and adult oncology at Addenbrookes Hospital, and a trial endorsed by the World Health Organisation is planned for children undergoing chemotherapy in hospital in Gaza.
The initial focus is on needle-based procedures, which can take as long as 20 minutes in children.
The system being developed by Dr. Moghaddam and her colleagues aims to personalise the experience. As a simplistic example, if a patient shows a greater calming effect when viewing trees, then they will be shown more scenes of trees.
Reducing stress for patients is important in terms of patient wellbeing and also makes it easier for medical staff to carry out the necessary procedures. If a patient is stressed enough to raise their blood pressure, then in some cases a treatment may even need to be postponed to another day.
The task for the i-Team is to investigate the pathway to adoption for this new product by interviewing doctors, nurses and possible funding sources to identify roadblocks and key next steps for the inventors. The i-Team will also be asked to look at different medical situations where the technology could be of benefit, including oncology, kidney dialysis and scans.