The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality head-mounted display that allows people to see the world in first person. Once inside the game, a person feels they are breathing, running, living in the virtual world. It’s that immersive! While the main purpose of this technological concept was specifically for entertainment purposes, this headset can make treatments for psychological, physical, and other disorders much more feasible and impactful for patients. It can also help new medical students experience real-life surgical procedures with minimal distractions.
Therapy
Virtual reality consoles can help patients get the best treatment for their respective disorders. In exposure therapy, patients with phobias can turn to the oculus rift in helping them overcome their fears such as flying and claustrophobia because virtual reality is a controlled environment which can help patients practice coping mechanisms and break avoidance patterns. If the patient is overwhelmed, the session can be stopped immediately by taking off the headset. Virtual reality consoles are also being used with soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder by allowing soldiers to become exposed to simulations of war to help veterans cope with such traumatic experiences. Patients with Phantom Limb Syndrome using virtual reality can help them come to terms with the loss of their limb by seeing a virtual recreation of their limb and patients with prosthetics can use this console to train themselves on how to use their prosthetics effectively. Virtual reality is not just something for entertainment but a controlled and safe environment for those with physical and mental problems.
Autism
“Children with autism generally interact well with technology, specifically virtual reality” says Jussine Cassel, director of Northwestern University's Center for Technology and Social Behaviour. Virtual reality helps autistic children learn social cues, motor skills, and overall help children with autism cope with real-world situations such as interacting with others, cooking meals, and learning when to cross the street. Generalization is KEY for patients with autism and if such patients learn skills and lessons in a virtual situation, these skills and lessons may be applied to real-world situations because both real-world and virtual reality experiences are so similar that patients are likely to do the same things they did in the virtual world in the real-world.
Surgical Training
Although this usage is far from being the most effective method of training new surgeons, because there are various, effective methods and simulations used specifically for training, it is the best method for allowing medical students to see how a surgical procedure is in first-person rather than seeing it on a screen. With virtual reality headsets, distractions in the real-world are minimal if not existent and can help medical students focus on the surgical video in front of them while allowing them to lean forward for a closer look or look to their sides to see what the nurses are doing. Besides minimizing distractions, it allows medical students to see exactly what the operating surgeon was seeing during surgical procedures.
Video games can be more than what they are perceived to be. They entertain us at home while, at the other side of the world, someone might be using virtual reality technology to help their friend get over their fear of spiders. It’s important to understand that anything developed by modern society, whether it be for entertainment purposes or not, can be used to better the world and the Oculus Rift and its sister technologies remains a strong representative of this way of thinking.