The co-founders of Healthy Mind, TImothée Cabanne and Reda Khouadra understood early on in their lives, the difficulty of living with pain and anxiety, because they grew up with parents suffering from chronic pain that was not relieved by medication. Subsequently, Reda who had been a 3D enthusiast since he was 12, realized that there could be a VR solution for pain and joined forces with Timothée. Together they created a solution, Healthy Mind, that represents a real opportunity to improve treatment for patients.
I Facts and Figures about the Use Case: The Pain and Anxiety of Medical and Surgical Procedures
What is the medical definition of this Use Case? What is its impact on patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals?
TImothée Cabanne for Healthy Mind: Pain and anxiety management is a real public health issue and a priority for governments. The more than 250 million surgical procedures performed each year in the world are associated with painful and anxiety-provoking patient experiences. A clinical study by the key hospital system in the Paris region, the AP-HP, shows that 55% of hospitalized patients suffer from pain and anxiety related to care (1). The consequences of high anxiety are important: increased postoperative pain, nausea and vomiting, slowed rehabilitation and failure to recover.
Unfortunately, commonly-used medications can cause side effects, be ineffective, or be otherwise unsuitable for patients. 35% of patients undergoing anesthesia during a medical procedure suffer from side effects and medical complications. These include cardio-respiratory and other serious risks. (2). This context leads to increased costs and the lesser quality of healthcare establishments. The use of opioids by European patients with chronic pain is also increasing, and the opioid crisis in the US is on everyone’s mind.
(1) Pain Prevalence in a French Teaching Hospital Laurence Salomon, MD, MPH, Steìphanie Tcherny Lessenot, MD Groupe :https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885392402005286(2) The incidence of side effects and their relation with anesthetic techniques after ambulatory surgery Hatice Ture*, Zeynep Eti, Muge Adil, Ozlem Kara F. Yýlmaz Gogus : https://www.iaas-med.com/files/Journal/Volume10/Volume10_2003_155-159.pdf
II What is the Healthy Mind Solution and how does it work?
TImothée Cabanne: HealthyMind provides healthcare professionals with an evidence-based medical device that combines immersion through virtual reality technology, medical hypnosis, and advanced therapeutic principles to alleviate pain and anxiety .
Clinical efficiency: Developed in close collaboration with physicians and neuroscience experts and proven by clinical studies, the solution uses the brain’s cognitive abilities to modulate pain pathways through visual and auditory stimulation, attention diversion and various advanced psychological principles to reduce pain and anxiety.
High-quality solution: The Healthy Mind solution transports the user into the purpose-designed 3D, natural and therapeutic environment of his or her choice. Each detail of the immersion is designed, tested, and optimized to reduce pain and anxiety. The immersions are amplified by the realism of the3D environments, a soothing sound atmosphere, and specific medical hypnosis scripts for each theme. Targeted breathing exercises are also integrated to manage stress and emotions.
Easy-to-use device designed for healthcare professionals: The Healthy Mind Control application allows caregivers to configure, monitor and control the virtual reality immersion on a tablet. Its intuitive interface leads to quick integration of the solution in the medical workflow. It offers multiple functionalities and allows for the creation of user profiles by use case. The connection between the VR headset and the tablet is fast, robust, and secure and does not require an internet network.
More information here: https://healthymind.fr/en/solution-2/
Healthy Mind also brings work-life quality improvement for caregivers suffering from burnout.
What are your key research publications and what can you tell us about your clinical research?
Hundreds of scientific studies around the world demonstrate the value of VR as a therapeutic solution for the reduction of pain and anxiety in many medical contexts. Healthy Mind is engaged in 13 ongoing studies of its solution. We published and communicated two abstracts on the effectiveness of our solution at the Anaesthesia and Intensive Care French Society (SFAR) annual meeting in 2019 and 2020. The results included the following:
-Significant decrease in pre-operative anxiety (-57%) in children waiting for surgery under general anaesthesia with a concomitant effect on the anxiety of the accompanying parent (-57%), n=15 – AP-HP Robert Debré (1)
-Significant decrease in pre-operative anxiety (-40%) in children awaiting scoliosis surgery with a decrease in post-operative morphine consumption (-80%), n=23 – AP-HP Robert Debré (2)
Healthy Mind also demonstrated its results in a study that will soon be published, as follows:
– Randomised controlled crossover study to evaluate the effectiveness of different solutions (musicotherapy, virtual reality with 3D content, virtual reality with real images) compared to standard care (book, TV) to improve the discomfort of patients in intensive care. Healthy Mind was the only solution to show, compared to standard care, a significant decrease in total patient discomfort score (-0,8 gain), pain level (-0,8 gain), anxiety threshold (-0,8 gain) and an improvement in the analgesia nociception index (ANI) measure (+13 pts), N=60 (3)
We also have a post-marketing study with these results:
– Decrease in pain (-70%) and anxiety (-70%) for patients under palliative care, n=32 – Centre Pallia-vie in Switzerland (4)
(1) Evaluation of a virtual reality headset for the management of peri-operative anxiety in children L. Marsac, M. Azale , S. Dahmani, Hôpital universitaire Robert-Debré, AP-HP (France)
(2) Effectiveness of VR in reducing anxiety and pain in pediatric idiopathic scoliosis surgery R. Assaker ,M. Azale, C. Nesa, F. Julien-Marsollier, S. Dahmani, Dar Chu Robert Debré – Paris (France)
(3) Discomfort Improvement for Critically-ill Patients using Electronical Relaxation Devices: results of the Cross Over Randomized Controlled Study E-CHOISIR (Electronical-CHOIce of a System for Intensive care Relaxation) L. Merlhiot-Gailhoustet, G. Chanques, Université de Montpellier, Faculé de médecine Montpellier-Nimes (France)
(4) Contribution of therapeutic virtual reality in pain and anxiety management in palliative care. Results of a 6 month before/after enquiry at the Pallia-vie care center (Switzerland) under the responsibility of Y. Gremion
Do you have any certifications or patents?
Healthy Mind is an ISO 13485 certified company and has several patent applications in process.
What is the regulatory status of your product (device) in the countries where it is available?
Healthy Mind VR is a certified CE Class 1 medical device, which is already available in Europe and will soon be available in Canada and the US.
What are they key usage figures?
- A total of 200 healthcare establishments have been equipped in 7 European countries
- 20 different hospital departments are using the solution with 100 distinct medical use cases
- The results of 4 studies have been communicated and 13 clinical studies are in process
- We have data on 80 000 satisfied patients
- Hundreds of caregivers have reported successfully using our device during their breaks to relax and combat burnout.
Do you have any quotes from patients and healthcare professionals using Healthy Mind?
I felt like I was on a cloud, with a fabulous, beautiful setting, teleported, transported. To forget everything, to forget my illness and then forget my condition. Happiness!” Patient in palliative care.
“The virtual reality project enables us to offer patients a technique to distract their attention and curb their pain and anxiety when being treated in the emergency room,” Dr. Olivier Ganansia, head of the emergency department at the Saint-Joseph Hospital in Paris.
“The immersive virtual reality solution provided by Healthy Mind has its proper place in the therapeutic arsenal, notably as a complement of sedative pharmaceutical techniques (..) Its visual and auditory immersive quality, realism and customization make it a high-quality instrument.” Dr Christophe Rabuel, Anesthetist at AP-HP hospital in Paris.
“She had tried everything, but nothing worked (…) After twenty minutes of the session, she was in tears and told us that she hadn’t felt this good in a long time. For her, it was like being on vacation.” Séléman Nabiyar, clinical nurse at the Cecil Clinic in Switzerland
This article was originally published on vrforhealth