NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (August 25, 2020) – Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian today announced the launch
of NurtureVR, a first-of-its-kind program for expectant mothers that uses
virtual reality (VR) to augment prenatal education, pain management related
to pregnancy, mindfulness and support women through postpartum care.
By combining accessible, immersive technology with compassionate, mindful
care, NurtureVR bridges innovation with a deep support of women as they
journey through pregnancy and into motherhood. Designed in partnership
with VR digital wellness leader BehaVR based in Nashville, NurtureVR will
be available in a pilot program involving 30 pregnant women next month.
“The goal is to nurture the relationship of the mother with her growing
baby. We have incorporated the insights of women who are pregnant, were
recently pregnant or are trying to become pregnant to ensure that no matter
what kind of pregnancy you are experiencing, Hoag is going to take care
of you the way only Hoag can,” said
Allyson Brooks, M.D., the Ginny Ueberroth Executive Medical Director Endowed
Chair of Hoag Women’s Health Institute. “How a woman experiences pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum
period is highly personal. NurtureVR was designed to meet each woman where
she is.”
Beginning at 27 weeks, Hoag maternity patients in Newport Beach and Irvine
will use VR headsets to access 14 weeks’ worth of educational material,
meditation capabilities and other immersive experiences. This includes
the ability to upload women’s own 3D ultrasound images for more
personalized experiences. After the baby is born, the program continues
for an additional eight weeks, with topics that cover maternal-baby bonding,
partner intimacy, stress and hormonal and emotional changes.
NurtureVR is built upon decades of research into VR’s ability to
mitigate pain, create experiential learning environments, lower stress
and improve wellbeing.
“Hoag has incorporated VR technology to assist surgeons with operations
since 2015, and the hospital remains a leader in using VR with patients
for pain management, patient education and mindfulness” said
Robert Louis, M.D, Chief of Neurosurgery and the Empower360 Endowed Chair
for Skull Base and Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery, Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute at Hoag.
“We can see on functional MRIs that VR decreases a patient’s
focus on the pain, eases the emotional unpleasantness of pain and even
diminishes the physical sensation of pain, itself,” he said. “When
you see the before and after, it’s amazing.”
NurtureVR goes far beyond pain management to supporting a woman’s
relationship with her baby and her own wellness, Dr. Louis said.
“Our approach is unlike anything else we’re seeing in therapeutic
VR or in women’s health. The idea is that VR can serve as a lifelong
tool, something women can take with them through the ‘fourth trimester,’
that eight-week period after a baby is born, and beyond,” Dr. Louis
said. “They can draw on the meditation mindfulness, stress management
and education they experienced through VR throughout their motherhood
experience.”
VR engages all four systems of learning in the brain:
- The cognitive system, involved in processing information in the pre-frontal cortex
- The experiential system, including vision, touch and hearing
- The emotional system, for empathy, love and bonding
- The behavioral system, which helps support feelings of reward and motivation
“By engaging all four systems of learning synchronously, VR has been
proven a highly effective tool for patient education, pain management
and mental health and wellness,” said Peter Buecker, MD, Chief Medical
Officer of BehaVR. “We are excited to partner with Hoag to bring
this tool to women as they journey through pregnancy and into early motherhood.”
Because the VR experience can be customized and individualized for each
woman, expectant mothers will experience different environments, sounds
and visual experiences, based on their preferences and input. The individual
journey is continuously refined and personalized with BehaVR’s Dynamic
Experience Engine. This includes everything from a mother’s and
baby’s skin tones, to the landscapes a woman sees, to the way a
woman chooses to hold her baby while breastfeeding.
“The process of being pregnant is universal but how a woman experiences
pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period is individual, and this
was designed to honor that,” Dr. Brooks said. “As you invest
time in these modules, you’re ‘feeding’ your baby through
your thoughts, so you actually see the umbilical cord lighting up as you
progress over time. You’re creating this relationship with your
baby that is in sync with the baby’s development.”
“This is a truly exciting time at Hoag,” said
Walter Greenleaf, Ph.D., of Stanford University and Member of Hoag’s VR Advisory Board. “With
the convergence of technologies today, Hoag is accelerating the advancement
of VR for patients and now are able to make accurate and objective assessments
of an individual’s mood state and stress level, instead of relying
on inaccurate, subjective self-reported measurements. This approach allows
us to develop new and powerful therapies for patients at Hoag that provide
very effective solutions for many of the complex challenges in women’s
health.”
Hoag physician leaders anticipate that VR will become the standard for
maternal education, pain management, emotional health and support for
the coming generation of parents.
“I envision mothers developing a relationship with the VR experience
that allows them to feel better about themselves as people, to reduce
feelings of angst and confusion and to remind them to take care of themselves,”
Dr. Brooks said. “That is one of the reasons we named the program
‘Nurture,’ to underscore the benefits of early relational
health and why taking care of mom is so important. We recognize that healthy
moms lead to healthy babies which leads to healthy communities, and VR
is an exciting new tool to help get us there.”
ABOUT HOAG MEMORIAL HOSPITAL PRESBYTERIAN
Hoag is a nonprofit, regional health care delivery network in Orange County,
California, that treats more than 30,000 inpatients and 480,000 outpatients
annually. Hoag consists of two acute-care hospitals – Hoag Hospital
Newport Beach, which opened in 1952, and Hoag Hospital Irvine, which opened
in 2010 – in addition to nine health centers and 13 urgent care
centers. Hoag has invested $261 million in programs and services to support
the underserved community within the past five years, including areas
like mental health, homelessness, transportation for seniors, education,
and support for single mothers. Hoag is a designated Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Hoag offers
a comprehensive blend of health care services that includes five institutes
providing specialized services in the following areas:
cancer,
heart and vascular,
neurosciences,
women’s health, and orthopedics through Hoag’s affiliate,
Hoag Orthopedic Institute, which consists of an orthopedic hospital and two ambulatory surgical centers.
In the 2020 - 2021
U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals Rankings, Hoag is the highest ranked hospital in Orange
County and the only OC hospital ranked in the Top 10 in California. For
an unprecedented 23 years, residents of Orange County have chosen Hoag
as one of the county’s best hospitals in a local newspaper survey. Visit
www.hoag.org for more information.
About BehaVR
BehaVR is advancing health care access and delivery and improving patient
outcomes and experiences through the pioneering use of virtual reality
(VR), cloud computing, and machine learning. Founded by leading clinicians,
healthcare veterans and technology innovators, BehaVR has a proprietary
technology platform that enables a personalized and progressive treatment
approach grounded in decades of neuroscience research and designed to
educate, motivate, and activate individuals to make long-term, sustained
improvements to their health. For more information, visit
www.behavr.com.
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