Virtual Archives - Family Medicine News

Virtual reality may encourage empathic behavior

18.10.2018 Health Problems

Virtual Reality could be a useful tool to encourage empathy, helpful behavior, and positive attitudes towards marginalized groups, according to a study published October 17, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Fernanda Herrera from Stanford University, USA, and colleagues. Empathy—the ability to share and understand others’ emotions—has been shown to foster altruistic or helpful behavior. Traditionally, researchers have […]

Virtual reality can help make people more compassionate compared to other media

18.10.2018 Health Problems

A Stanford-developed virtual reality experience, called “Becoming Homeless,” is helping expand research on how this new immersive technology affects people’s level of empathy. According to new Stanford research, people who saw in virtual reality, also known as VR, what it would be like to lose their jobs and homes developed longer-lasting compassion toward the homeless compared to those who explored […]

Researchers harness virtual reality, motion capture to study neurological disorders

06.09.2018 Health Problems

Neuroscientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) have a powerful new state-of-the-art tool at their disposal to study diseases like Autism, Alzheimer’s, and traumatic brain injury. The Mobile Brain/Body Imaging system, or MoBI, combines virtual reality, brain monitoring, and Hollywood-inspired motion capture technology, enabling researchers to study the movement difficulties that often accompany neurological disorders and why our […]

Virtual reality tool corrects errors in brain scan data

22.08.2018 Health Problems

In recent years, virtual reality technology has begun proving its worth outside the world of gaming, with applications in education, health care, military training and beyond. Now researchers at the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute at the Keck School of Medicine of USC are exploring a new frontier: VR as a tool for processing brain scan data. […]

Virtual counseling helps lower blood pressure

17.07.2018 Health Problems

People with high blood pressure who get on the information highway can avoid roadblocks in their cardiovascular health, according to new research. The study found that adding online counseling to medical therapy helped lower high blood pressure and the estimated risk for developing heart disease within the next decade. “Internet-based supportive lifestyle counseling does indeed work effectively when it’s clinically […]

Virtual reality headsets significantly reduce children’s fear of needles

18.06.2018 Kids Health

The scenario is all too familiar for the majority of parents. The crying, the screaming and the tantrums as they try to coax their children into the doctor’s office for routine immunizations. After all, who can’t relate to being fearful and anxious about needles? Needle phobia is one of the most common fears among children who receive vaccines and they […]

Virtual brain gives insights into memory deficits in depression

11.06.2018 Health Problems

During a depressive episode, the ability of the brain to form new brain cells is reduced. Scientists of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum examined how this affects the memory with a computational model. It was previously known that people in an acute depressive episode were less likely to remember current events. The computational model however suggests that older memories were affected as […]

Virtual world addresses problems of stroke-related communication condition

03.05.2018 Health Problems

A study from City, University of London has found that time spent in a virtual world called EVA Park can improve the communication skills of people with aphasia, a communication condition which results in loss of speech and difficulty with communication following a stroke. The new findings from the study also show that EVA Park users frequently experience laughter and […]

Virtual drug trials boost results

02.05.2018 Health Problems

Bringing a new drug to market can cost more than two billion dollars. Not to mention years of work spent developing and testing for scientists, researchers, doctors, and trial participants. By bringing trials to the virtual realm, Belinda H. Tan ’96 has found a way to cut all that in half. Her company, Science 37, is moving the entire drug […]