One virtual world, many therapies: VR supermarket reimagining rehabilitation
A pioneering research collaboration, led by Dr Clare Burns, Speech Pathologist at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH), is pushing the boundaries of immersive virtual reality (VR) to transform rehabilitation for people recovering from traumatic brain injury and stroke.
An initial RBWH Foundation grant funded a VR Communication Café. Now the team has received a second Foundation grant to design a more complicated scenario. The chosen setting? A VR supermarket.
“The use of Virtual Reality (VR) in rehabilitation is rapidly growing, but there are relatively few examples of it being used by multidisciplinary teams for coordinated care. Our goal is to change that,” Dr Burns said.
Creating the VR supermarket has also been a team effort, bringing together people with lived experience and clinicians from disciplines including speech pathology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and neuropsychology. The goal is to support people to practice a wider range of skills - physical, cognitive and communication.
“Through the co‑design process, we can ensure that the virtual reality environment reflects real‑world challenges and supports the diverse rehabilitation needs of people who are motivated to improve their physical, cognitive, and communication functioning and regain the skills and confidence they need to participate in their community,” Dr Burns said.
“Having been able to integrate with telehealth services has added another exciting dimension – supporting the delivery of rehabilitation services to a wider range of patient populations, in particular for those where distance, transport issues, travel costs and work/family commitments make clinic visits problematic or prohibitive.”
