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Lenovo pilots VR as an alternative to general anesthesia for kids - Venture Beat
Whether you’re an adult or a child, medical procedures can be intimidating or uncomfortable enough to cause panic — one reason patients might need to be knocked out with general anesthesia. But Lenovo and the Starlight Children’s Foundation have been pilot testing virtual reality headsets as an alternative to general anesthetics for kids, alleviating panic and pain by distracting critically ill pediatric patients from what’s actually happening around them.
Starlight’s pilot has been underway at hospitals for the last year, and just as doctors have found VR highly useful in medical training, practitioners have realized that the clinical potential of VR-based distraction therapy for kids is profound. As illustrated in Lenovo’s recently premiered short film, New Realities, doctors have successfully performed even invasive procedures such as endoscopy with only local anesthetic, while other procedures require no anesthetic when coupled with VR.
Whether you’re an adult or a child, medical procedures can be intimidating or uncomfortable enough to cause panic — one reason patients might need to be knocked out with general anesthesia. But Lenovo and the Starlight Children’s Foundation have been pilot testing virtual reality headsets as an alternative to general anesthetics for kids, alleviating panic and pain by distracting critically ill pediatric patients from what’s actually happening around them.
Starlight’s pilot has been underway at hospitals for the last year, and just as doctors have found VR highly useful in medical training, practitioners have realized that the clinical potential of VR-based distraction therapy for kids is profound. As illustrated in Lenovo’s recently premiered short film, New Realities, doctors have successfully performed even invasive procedures such as endoscopy with only local anesthetic, while other procedures require no anesthetic when coupled with VR.