Virti

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Virti

5th March 2019

Digital tool providing mental health support and training services to health professionals and patients at scale.

“Simple and fun are two words that describe the platform. This will revolutionise how we, as med students and health professionals, learn to perform under pressure before entering a clinical environment with patients benefitting. Using the platform has made me more confident in my practice.”
Sarah Humphries, Final Year Med Student

Summary:

Virti is a virtual and augmented reality platform that transports users into realistic environments and uses computer vision to assess how they respond to stress to reduce anxiety and improve performance. The system is both patient and physician-facing.

It is currently being used to:

Scale mental health training; including Maudsley and South-West London’s simulation training of staff within the trust and to any professional industry requiring mental health support training
Scale simulation training to reduce anxiety and improve performance for students and health professionals
Scale delivery of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to patients suffering with anxiety and phobias

Challenge/problem identified:

There is no cost-effective way to scale in-person coaching to improve human performance and this is a huge problem for patients and professionals.

Students and health professionals experience heightened levels of stress and anxiety*, and report experiencing negative thoughts and emotions. These levels of stress can manifest in a number of ways causing an associated increase in stress-related mental health issues, reduced student satisfaction, and lower levels of academic performance. It is difficult engaging with learners, and in particular medical students and NHS employees, and supporting them around stressful periods such as exams and interviews.

It can be difficult to scale mental health and support services that traditionally rely on one-to-one support. Even educating support staff themselves around delivery of quality mental health training is limited by scale.

*(Bewick, Koutsopoulou, Miles, Slaa & Barkham, 2010; Regehr, Glancy & Pitts, 2013)

Impact:

20% improvement in information retention over alternatives (learning retention rates can be as high as 75%, vs. just 10% for reading or a lecture, 20% video and 40% in-person)
35% increased engagement in training/therapy
40% reduction in time spent in training/therapy sessions
52% reduction in skill-fade and 77% improvement in confidence
New revenue streams created for institutions by licensing content
Used in UK and US healthcare institutions
SBRI grant recipient