VR for Therapy

Have seen some proposals for this,  but  no clear benefits indicated. 

VR Is Revolutionizing Therapy. Why Aren't More People Using It? By CNet, March 27, 2023

High costs, VR's slow adoption, and a lack of awareness about VR therapy are to blame for its slow uptake.

The idea of using virtual reality to ease anxiety and overcome phobias isn't new; it's been studied since the 1990s.

Sam Stokes, a New Zealand-based sales manager, isn't usually an anxious person. But there's one thing that, as he puts it, scared the shit out of him: needles. 

His aversion was severe enough to hold him back from getting routine tests. Stokes, now 40, recalls an instance in his 20s when he simply couldn't bring himself to get a blood test. He once even drove to the testing facility to get his blood drawn, but couldn't follow through with it. His partner (now wife) eventually convinced him to get the test, but he remembers it as one of "the most horrific" experiences he's had. 

"I kind of passed out a little bit along the way, and was sweaty and clammy and all that sort of stuff," he said. "I just absolutely hated the whole experience."

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, he knew he couldn't let his needle phobia hold him back. Even watching the news became difficult, as stations regularly ran stories about vaccine developments.

From CNet

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VR Physiotherapy

An example of using feedback to get real results.

Physiotherapy Could be Done at Home Using VR
University of Warwick
February 28, 2020

Researchers at the Warwick Manufacturing Group of the U.K.’s University of Warwick have combined virtual reality (VR) with three-dimensional motion-capture technology to help patients perform physiotherapy exercises at home. The researchers asked participants to step in time with an avatar viewed through a VR headset, while subtly slowing or speeding up one of the avatar's steps. Observations showed that participants had difficulty keeping time when only presented with visual information, while the addition of footsteps allowed participants to accurately maintain pace with the avatar. Said Warwick's Theo Arvanitis, "Our work and digitally-enabled technological solution can underpin transformative health innovations to impact the field of physiotherapy, and have a direct benefit to patients' rehabilitation." .... ' 

Robot Physical Therapy

This came to mind in a recent physical therapy session, with my PT describing how muscles could be trained back into health   Why not hook up  a sensory means to watch the muscles,  detect changes in pattern,  and adjust the regimen towards a goal.  Here an example of work in this direction from EPFL. Though here about neurological changes and strokes, why not for any kind of physical therapy?

 In Newscientist: 
" ... Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland have developed a smart harness that uses artificial intelligence to help people regain their mobility following certain neurological injuries. The smart harness collects information on leg movement, stride, and muscle activity from body sensors, and then uses that information to provide support specifically designed for the way the patient walks, determining how much force to apply to produce a natural gait. Following a single, one-hour training session with the smart harness, patients with spinal cord injuries showed immediate improvement in their gait out of the harness compared to those who did not use the harness, according to the researchers. The system helps patients rebuild lost muscle mass and relearn posture and movement, while also retraining the brain to handle the balance between gravity and forward motion that walking requires. ... "