“Do children always stay healthy? No, of course they don’t. They can suffer from eye diseases which are leading to blindness without treatment”, says Peter Maloca, Head of the IOB Ophthalmic Imaging and OCT Group, who also runs an ophthalmologic practice in Lucerne.
One of the most difficult aspects for health professionals remains to communicate a sight-threatening disease to the child and their family.
“We were able to prove in a clinical study that Virtual reality (VR) is quite a viable channel for communication between ophthalmologists and this vulnerable group. With VR we can make a disease more comprehensible and accessible to children and young people – as well as their parents – and prepare them for medical interventions.”
The study led by Peter Maloca, in collaboration with teams at Moorfields Hospital in the UK, with Leeds University and with the University of Basel showed that an ophthalmological VR application was successfully accepted in children and young people. The digital VR environment was perceived as a positive and safe experience by the young study participants and is recommended as an interactive platform for the communication of diseases, such as retinal pathologies.
What is the background for this clinical study?
There has been a dramatic increase in myopia among school-age children in East and Southeast Asia over recent decades. It remains a great challenge to explain myopia-associated and other eye diseases in a way that is easily accessible to lay people, particularly for children.
Virtual reality has never been clinically examined as one more useful tool in patient communication, for making a disease more comprehensible and accessible to children and young people. The novel VR display could be used, for example, to communicate issues surrounding myopic complications such as a retinal tear or the need for repeated anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections.
To date, there is little knowledge of whether and how children can tolerate a VR application. “Our study investigated the feasibility, usability and tolerability of medical virtual reality in children and young people, which have never previously been assessed. Our aim was to assess children and young people’s responses to an ophthalmological VR experience, with a focus on whether it can facilitate understanding, increases interest in science generally and is well-tolerated in this young population”, says Peter Maloca.
Original publication:
Peter M. Maloca, Emily A. Williams, Faisal Mushtaq, Andreas Rueppel, Philipp L. Müller, Clemens Lange, Emanuel R. de Carvalho, Nadja Inglin, Michael Reich, Catherine Egan, Pascal W. Hasler, Adnan Tufail, Hendrik P.N. Scholl, Philippe C. Cattin
ACTA Ophthalmologica (online 14 May) 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/aos.14900