Virtual reality is a way to immerse
people in alternative worlds. So we use
goggles that transport people to
entirely different universe, a different
planet, different environment places, that
we've never seen or been before maybe
even never imagined before. We meet
patients where they are. We come to their
hospital room and we fit them with the
goggles make sure they're snug and
comfortable then we bring them through
the video experiences. One video brings
people to Iceland where they get in a
helicopter and they can explore these
unbelievable topographies. The second
video is an art studio which is an
opportunity for patients to sit back and
draw painting. The third video is great
for people that love the water and love
the sea they can swim with dolphins and
with sea creatures like blue whales
takes about 20 minutes of time and then
afterwards we sit down and find out what
they thought of it and spend a little
time learning from them. So what we're
doing here is part of a larger
initiative to find out how to use
digital technologies to improve the
value of care at Cedar-Sinai and beyond.
And by value we mean we want to improve
the quality of care the experiences that
our patients have but also reduce the
cost of care and something like virtual
reality might be able to do that by
reducing the resources that are used or
shortening the length of stay that
people spend in the hospital
and as a result improve their overall
experience and reduce resources at the
same time. Our goal is to not just do
this but to analyze it to study it and
to publish it and to disseminate what
we're learning to the rest of the
healthcare world so that what we're
doing here at Cedars-Sinai could be a
model for others to follow.
