How Virtual Reality Will Change Physical Therapy Forever

This review will be about papers published in the field of rehabilitative gaming, particularly focusing on those published by Gary Ushaw. By implementing rehabilitation exercises into an interactive game, the patient no longer sees them as a chore and instead will engage for longer and complete them in a quicker time, which speeds up the healing process (Ushaw, Ziogas, Eyre, & Morgan, 2013). I personally believe there is serious potential in the future of rehabilitative gaming, which will be beneficial to both the patient in question because they take less time to complete the rehabilitation process, and doctors and the NHS because patients can use home equipment instead of coming onto a hospital etc.

In the article, “Virtual Reality: Ethical Challenges and Dangers” author Ben Kenwright explains how virtual reality and other types of technology can help people and will become even better in the near future. The psychological implications of using technology to escape and its impact on mental well-being are beneficial for the reasoning that it can help with the emotions of kids and entertain them but it can also be harmful because of safety concerns.

For their study, “47 undergraduate students at a Midwest university” were gathered through an online sign up process in which no demographics were collected in the study and the participants had the motivation of receiving class credit for their participation (556). Out of the 47, 2 participants were excluded from the final result due to problems with the procedure, leaving a total of 45. These individuals took part in a virtual reality simulation designed to help people overcome fear of heights. Each participant wore a specially designed set of goggles that allowed for the wearer to have a 360 degree view of the virtual environment and was given a hand-held controller to control their movements throughout the environment. The environment consisted of

Transcript from our interview with Dr. Pretorius, Orthopaedic Surgeon: He says he is not aware of any virtual reality training for orthopaedics. The traditional training for arthroscopic knee surgery was either on cadavers or they would do arthroscopies on public patients (while they were registrar's) with severe osteoarthritis - which means they get a bit of practice on a living patient, without the chance of doing any damage. He says that he thinks training in virtual reality would be a useful tool, but will not be as accurate as/good experience as working on cadavers or live patients - giving you more exposure to real life complications and individual anatomy of patients - Dr Willem Pretorius, Orthopaedic Surgeon

The fear of heights can sometimes leave people frozen in terror. There is large amount of evidence suggesting that virtual reality therapy has successfully helped alleviate conditions similar to PTSD. This is accomplished by slowly increasing the amount of stressors, as to not overload the patient with irrational fear. For example, with fear of heights, researchers can gradually increase the difficulty of the simulation, so that the height of the platform increases after every session. In a similar case study, 49 patients had volunteered to participate in a virtual reality treatment for their fear of flying. Results showed, “By the 6-month follow-up, 90% of treated participants had flown since completing treatment” (Anderson 2001). Effectiveness also hugely depends on plausibility and affordability. We need to consider if this treatment is convenient for

Medical Applications of virtual and augmented reality: Virtual reality is an interactive simulation that makes you feel like you are somewhere you are not. It is now starting to be used in the medical field. For patients that are in pain, virtual reality can be used to make it seem like they are in a different happier place. Studies show that it has the same effectiveness level as morphine, possibly even more effective. For therapists who help people with different fears, virtual reality can help conquer the fear. For example, a virtual reality for people suffering arachnophobia allows people to experience what it is like to have spiders surrounding them. Virtual reality can also be used for surgical training. Surgeons can practice surgery without the fear of hurting or injuring an actual patient. This is helpful because if they mess up, they do not have to deal with the consequences that come from surgical mistakes. Virtual reality is a very new and upcoming idea, and in the near future it has the potential to become much more common in a healthcare

I believe that my personal and professional growth and behavior as a physical therapist is of utmost importance. I base this firstly on my strong connection to those in society who are disadvantaged when it comes to physical therapy, and also on the movement system, movement being “the key to optimal living and quality of life for all people that extends beyond health to every person’s ability to participate in and contribute to society” (American Physical Therapy Association, 2013). This perspective, I believe, is aligned perfectly with the vision statement for the physical therapy profession – to transform society through optimization of movement to improve the human experience (APTA, 2013). After reviewing the vision statement, I strongly believe it will act as my guide by strengthening compassion, reinforcing advocacy, improving quality of service, and strengthening cohesion.

Physical therapists use techniques that help their patients with their ability to move, restore their function, and prevent possible disabilities. There are several different game consoles available for these therapists to use in their treatments. With motion sensors that are included in many different gaming consoles, patients can now actually get up and do physical activity with the game. In fact, there are newly developed devices that have been proven to help with physical therapy. The book Video Games (Compact Research: Current Issues) reveals that there is a treatment program called “Wii-hab” that they have named after the Nintendo’s Wii video gaming system. It claims “the Wii-hab program has helped patients regain the ability to move so they are able to wash their faces, brush their teeth, get in and out of chairs, and start a car” (Parks 56). As a result, interactive video games open several doors for patients because they prompt the brain and trigger senses that relate back to how muscles are supposed to

Once the technology had been developed to a point where it could actually be utilized, VR was often seen as more of a tool than a new method of entertainment. The technology was fine-tuned and then used in flight simulators during the 70s to train pilots before they got into a real plane. The technology then made its way to the entertainment industry during the video-game boom of the 80s. Since its inception, Virtual Reality technology has found a wide range of uses in very unpredictable ways. The military, the space program, medical students and even driving schools use virtual training environments that take place in a version of Virtual Reality.

In this type of therapy there are multiple advantages and disadvantages in using virtual therapy. The therapy is known to be more successful than any other therapy. The technology that is used in making a virtual environment is a push into better and newer technology for new therapy ways. Being able to help someone who cannot even walk out of their own house or go anywhere else is a huge accomplishment for the psychology world because they can now help more people who most likely needs it

Physical Therapy is a growing and excelling field with many opportunities involved. I have an abundance of professional goals that I am excited and eager to achieve in the physical therapy profession. After becoming licensed with a doctorate of physical therapy degree, I would like to advance and become a certified specialist in pediatrics. I know this specific interest could change as I complete my clinical experiences and am open to different specialties. Along with specializing, there are several more goals that I am motivated to achieve as a future physical therapist.

Imagine a soldier that looses a limb in battle, an athlete who breaks an bone or tears a muscle during practice or a game, a child born with a disability condition, or a police officer that has been shot or injured in the line of duty all have the same thing in common. Each of these different situations and many others activities require a Doctor of Physical Therapy in order to treat their complication. Being a Physical Therapists is a job that will always be needed; there will always be people that need help regaining their physical health. It is all about helping people ranging in all ages from the elderly, adults, teens, and children who have problems with their body, muscles and joints. People should follow the consequentialist view in any career field that they decide to pursue. Physical therapist need to have certain habits to succeed in the medical field. If they do not have these certain habits they will not be as successful as the therapist that do have these habits. Therefore, there are certain traits I believe a physical therapist needs to have, which is the ability to give encouragement, to be very knowledgeable, have a lot patience, and be personable in order to be successful in the job field.

The pros of virtual reality outweigh the cons of virtual reality. Virtual reality help a lot of people that are lonely and giving them some help, maybe boosting their confidence or even providing them with information on how to do something like getting a date. According to the source: “ ‘A lot of people are lonely.’ Anderson admits. ‘ They want some sort of entertainment or companionship or a little bit of both.’” (Article 2, Page 8) This shows how, virtual reality can be used to help out the lonely people, the people that don't have confidence. Virtual reality is more of like a voice for the voiceless. Also, another way virtual reality shows how it has many pros, and those pros beat out the cons the following shows this from the text (My Virtual Girlfriend) : “I’ve been in a real relationship for almost a year and , in some ways, playing My Virtual Girlfriend reminded me of what my boyfriend and my early dalliances felt like.” Furthermore, both quotes support the claim of how people are struggling and disabled people, letting people believe, and it gives a pro over a con. It doesn't let people struggle, it gives people options, and you may ask how? Well, virtual reality allows you to believe that you are this, you are good at this that feeds into your mind and you begin to build your confidence to get that entertainment to go out

Pain is the most predominant symptom experience after an injury and dressing changes only add to the pain. A method is required to decrease the amount of pain during a dressing change to help promote wound healing and increase hand function (Guo, Deng, & Yang, 2014). Some of the treatments we use presently in the hospital to decrease pain, such as analgesics, can cause “respiratory depression, decrease blood pressure and other side effects” (Guo et al., 2014, p.116). Another treatment used is a “narcotic dressing” which can significantly increase the cost of treatment. This study looks at the use of a nonpharmacological way of decreasing pain during a dressing change by the use of virtual reality distraction. The purpose of this research study

These studies found that these alternative methods did help to improve strength and function of these patients, but none of the studies had significant data to definitively prove this. While the data from these studies are not significant, it does not mean that they are entirely unimportant. Most of the researchers from these studies sent out follow up questionnaires about the enjoyment of the rehabilitation styles. All of the studies that did these questionnaires found that the participants had much greater levels of enjoyment and motivation while completing their from of rehab. This shows that while these alternative methods of hemiplegia rehabilitation might not be entirely effective on their own, they can serve a purpose when combined with traditional physical therapy methods. Physical therapist can utilize video games like the Wii or virtual reality software for patients that do not respond to or do not have proper motivation for traditional rehabilitation methods. This can help the physical therapist tremendously so they will have a tool at their disposal to help increase the motivation of the harder to work with patients. While the studies were performed well, they did have a number of limitations that hindered the research. Many of the studies, all besides one, had less than 50 participants, which leaves very little room for participant or conductor error. These small sample sizes also allow for outliers to throw off the data tremendously, as compared to if the study had a larger sample size. Another limitation that most of these studies had was that there were often a greater number of males to females. While this may not seem detrimental to these studies, it does provide doubt about the accuracy because of the differences between males and females, which may have skewed the data in a