Geisinger Tests mHealth Platform for Chronic Pain Treatment

Health systems looking for an alternative to opioids are testing out mHealth and telehealth tools to help patients living with acute and chronic pain.

The Geisinger Health System, for example, is using virtual reality (VR) headsets and a connected health platform designed by AppliedVR to treat patients, first training them on the technology at the hospital and then sending them home to continue treatment.

Chronic pain “can be insidious and long-lasting,” says Michaek Suk, MD, the chairman of Geisinger’s Musculoskeletal Institute and Department of Orthopedic Surgery. “We really want to add more arrows to the quiver when it comes to treating these conditions, and to make more of an impact in post-acute treatment.”

The Pennsylvania-based health system has been testing the platform in a study coordinated by AppliedVR, an LA company that received FDA Breakthrough Device designation just last month to use its platform, as a digital therapeutic to treat treatment-resistant fibromyalgia and chronic intractable lower back pain. Both Geisinger and the Cleveland Clinic are using the technology, with funding from a $2.9 million grant from the National Institute of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) awarded to AppliedVR.

Health systems across the world have been using VR and augment reality (AR) platforms in treating a wide variety of conditions, from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s to PTSD, ADHD, autism and concussions. They’re also using the technology to help people dealing with discomfort, whether it’s during childbirth, in the dentist’s chair, while undergoing cancer treatment or experiencing pain.

Suk sees VR as “distraction therapy,” a category of treatment that addresses how the mind reacts to certain situations. Through these platforms, care providers can help patients train their brains to look beyond the discomfort. And via connected health, they can personalize those treatments to improve patient engagement, track the results at home and modify care plans.

“It’s very interesting landscape,” says Suk, noting the treatments often can be used in place of intrusive visits to the doctor’s office and medications, such as opioids. “I was skeptical at first – perhaps more curious – and then surprised at the magnitude of the effect. (VR therapy) can very easily and quickly help these patients take the pain highway off-ramp.”

By motivating patients to overlook or manage pain, he says, providers can improve a patient’s outlook and engagement with care providers, in some cases accelerating the healing process and improving clinical outcomes. This, in turn, reduces healthcare costs seen in office or clinic treatments, travel, prescription medications and negative outcomes requiring more treatment.

Going forward, Suk sees the potential for AR and VR platforms in individual therapy, group therapy and remote patient monitoring programs. But that potential has to be backed up by data, and the platform has to be developed in such a way that it’s sustainable.

“Right now we need to make sure it’s working,” he says. “Anytime we do an intervention we need to know if it’s doing any good and our patients are getting better.”