MORGANTOWN — Mon Health is helping patients escape the confines and pain of a procedure table or infusion chair through the rollout of a virtual reality experience dubbed MONA.
Dr. Shakuri-Rad, Mon Health System urologist and director of robotic surgery, began using the virtual reality — VR —— headsets during vasectomies in late 2018.
The goal, he said, is to try to change patients’ perception of pain and discomfort instead of just numbing them with opioids. It doesn’t take the place of a local anesthetic during the procedure, but replaces the narcotics or sedatives some patients request to calm their nerves.
“That’s been a huge hit and great success,” he said. No one was taking off the headset and asking for Percocet.
He saw the possibility for broader application he said, to take all kinds of patients away from the procedure room to settings around the city, country and world, to explore art, culture and various experiences.
“That negates the need for things like narcotic medications … and thereby we can reduce the dependency on those medications,” he said.
But what was missing, he said, was software designed for medical purposes. Off-the-shelf VR is designed for people who can be up and about. This has to serve patients immobile on procedure tables or infusion chairs, and not cause nausea or disorientation.
Mon Health Medical Center teamed with The Healing Museum, a VR arts platform designed for pain management and anxiety relief, to develop MONA. A Morgantown High and MIT grad, Benjamin Gleitzman, who is co-founder and chief technology officer of The Healing Museum, helped develop it.
The next step, Shakuri-Rad said, was to expand MONA’s use to the cancer center, where patients sit for long periods in a sterile infusion room undergoing chemotherapy or other treatments.
“Now during that time we can whisk them away to the beach, to Europe, South America, wherever they want to go.” The various journeys can be adjusted to the patient’s interests.
Tammy Minton, Mon Health’s service line director for oncology, said MONA successfully decreases patient anxiety. It also helps caregivers who elect to take a virtual tour. “We look forward to our next steps.”
Mon Health System President and CEO David Goldberg said he saw Shakuri-Rad one day toting the headsets down a hallway and asked what they were. When Shakuri-Rad explained them, Goldberg said, “We’ve got to expand this to the population.”
That led to taking it to the cancer center. “I’m thrilled to be able to offer this,” and to scale it outward. Mon Health has two headsets on site — one in urology, one in the cancer center — and soon will be sending sets out to the infusion center at Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Goldberg foresees a time when headsets will be available for staff delivering care so they can retreat and decompress during breaks.
Shakuri-Rad said there is a lot of interest in distractive medicine and the mind’s role, and MONA can help heal the mind as well as the body.
MONA Director Fernando Gil, said MONA not only helps patients, “It’s also an incredible artistic project as well.”
One of the virtual worlds is an art museum where patients can use a handheld pointer to paint, and where local high school students are creating an exhibition.
The name MONA, he said, was inspired by the Mona Lisa, but also plays on Mon Health.
Wearing the headset is like having your own private 360 degree IMAX theater. You can travel to forests or beaches, experience snow and rain that seem to fall on your lap, visit cities or head indoors to art studios or rustic cabins. Sometimes you’re looking at a vast panorama, sometimes you’re up close and intimate.
For patients, a tour guide with a tablet containing the VR worlds menu helps the patient navigate the various journeys and coordinates the journeys to the procedure
While a VR headset seems like the epitome of in-focused isolation, Gil said MONA can actually enhance community. People often want to visit the real versions of the VR worlds they explore, and MONA is building Morgantown locations into its menu.
Additionally, patients will sometimes be so thrilled with a site they visit, they’ll want to share it with others and work as the tour guide, holding the tablet and steering someone else on their journey.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
