PainDroid: An android-based virtual reality application for pain assessment

Earlier studies in the field of pain research suggest that little efficient intervention currently exists in response to the exponential increase in the prevalence of pain. In this paper, we present an Android application (PainDroid) with multimodal functionality that could be enhanced with Virtual Reality (VR) technology, which has been designed for the purpose of improving the assessment of this notoriously difficult medical concern. Pain- Droid has been evaluated for its usability and acceptability with a pilot group of potential users and clinicians, with initial results suggesting that it can be an effective and usable tool for improving the assessment of pain. Participant experiences indicated that the application was easy to use and the potential of the application was similarly appreciated by the clinicians involved in the evaluation. Our findings may be of considerable interest to healthcare providers, policy makers, and other parties that might be actively involved in the area of pain and VR research

Preparação psicológica para a cirurgia em pediatria: importância, técnicas e limitações

Este artigo apresenta uma revisão crítica da literatura sobre os programas e técnicas de preparação psicológica para cirurgia em crianças e discute os limites da pesquisa neste campo. Os procedimentos cirúrgicos produzem elevados níveis de ansiedade para os pacientes pediátricos, podendo provocar distúrbios psicológicos. A preparação pode reduzir a ansiedade, comportamentos negativos e inadequados no pós-cirúrgico, e ser eficaz para reduzir a ansiedade dos pais. Discutem-se limitações referentes à pesquisa, além de sugerir sua importância e o desenvolvimento de trabalhos científicos na área que avaliem melhor os procedimentos, como também, salientem e justifiquem a importância dos pais no trabalho de preparação pré-cirúrgica

Virtual reality and augmeneted reality for managing symptoms

As technology advances, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have been applied more and more widely. VR and AR are applied in the various healthcare facets including medical education and training, surgical simulation, neurological rehabilitation, psychotherapy, and telemedicine. Many research studies have provided the evidence that VR and AR can be effective interventions on the management of many disease and treatment-induced symptoms. VR and AR can offer to users a safe environment within which to experience different interventions. These interventions include the rehabilitation of discharged patients at the home setting, the support of hospitalized patients during different procedures, and also the management of treatment-induced adverse events of patients with cancer to name a few. These technologies are promising tools for the monitoring of treatments that influence the psychological and physiological functions of the patients. The aim of this chapter is to describe VR and AR and their efficacy on symptoms management which many patients experience