Just because you’re homebound doesn’t mean you can’t go to Italy.
Or Lake Erie, your childhood hometown, for a walk in the woods or virtually anywhere else.
That’s the premise for Akron, Ohio, startup Immersive Cure, which aims to bring virtual reality to hospices, senior-living centers and nursing homes.
“I’ve deployed it more than 100 times now,” company founder Jessica Benson told Crain’s Cleveland Business. “Wherever the patient calls home, that’s where we take it.”
The “it” is a backpack kit that Benson has named RoVR! It includes VR goggles, a matching headset for sound, six programs offering relaxation scenarios or visits to favorite spots like the shores of Lake Erie, along with materials to clean the equipment between uses. Benson is also working on customizing content for some patients.
Benson’s first sale came this summer, with four units to Sandusky, Ohio-based Stein Hospice.
“We try to bring much support, not only medically but spiritually, including comfort care … and where we think VR comes in is with that comfort care,” said Sherri Bourne, community and veterans coordinator at Stein.
Other applications found for VR in healthcare have been offering it as part of pain management to reduce opioid use and as a high-tech solution to help medical students practice surgical procedures.
