Provider of virtual reality (VR) and 360° video content, Blend Media, have announced a partnership with VR healthcare group, Rescape Innovation to use immersive content to help improve the patient experience.

Through the partnership, Rescape will deploy ‘out of the box’ VR solution for healthcare organisation. The DR.VR kit will be used to provide patients with an immersive experience during their treatment. Research and clinical trials show that VR can be used in patient areas such as palliative care, distraction therapy and pain management.

Blend Media will provide content from its library of professional 360° videos which Rescape will use in its VR kit. The 360° videos will give patients the ability to take control of a range of scenes and explore them while undergoing treatment.

The kit was trialled with Llandough Hospital in the Vale of Glamorgan for distraction therapy during cystic fibrosis treatment.

Dr Jamie Duckers, Llandough Hospital, said: “Cystic fibrosis is an illness that requires a lot of time consuming and isolating treatment, which often impacts the patient’s anxiety levels and ability to cope. By having the opportunity to break up the monotony and strain of treatment through immersive VR content, patients have been able to momentarily escape the hardship of dealing with the treatments of the disease and have reported impressive reductions in pain and anxiety levels and I can see virtual reality distraction therapy being a useful adjunct in treatment”

Damian Collier, founder and CEO at Blend Media, added: “We are excited to partner with Rescape to explore the potential of 360/VR content to help patients undergoing treatment. We have seen a growth in healthcare as a market for VR, which we put down to the fact that it plays to the unique benefits of the medium by taking the viewer into a different world and empowers them to actively explore the scene. Blend Media’s extensive, varied and continually updated library of 360° content puts us in the perfect position to realise this ambition with Rescape.”

Glenn Hapgood, Head of Innovation and Product Development, Rescape Innovation, said: “The uptake of VR in the healthcare sector in Europe has been far slower in the UK in comparison to the US and Australia. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that VR and 360° video can be used to improve the patient experience, reduce stress, anxiety, and pain, as they are able to offer an affordable, extensive and engaging set of content that can be easily used in the headsets, but until now the high cost and complex technology has prevented mass adoption. We are excited to launch this new project which will help to tap into this market and potentially drive some significant benefits for patients. Blend Media was the go-to-choice of partner".