Digital tool providing mental health support and training services to health professionals and patients at scale.
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:
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:
Fellow: Alex Young
safety, quality and efficiency within hospitals
mental health self-care and education
self-care and education
primary care and urgent care self-care and education
cancer earlier intervention and diagnostics self-care and education
cancer
cardiovascular disease earlier intervention and diagnostics
cancer earlier intervention and diagnostics