Many people, particularly kids, are afraid of being given needle-based procedures. Injections are the worst possible hindrance a person might encounter when undergoing clinical operations due to their hurting sharpness.
Today, it is still hard for many children to participate in medical operations, from blood sampling to anesthetics administering, because of the uneasiness and fear that the medical needles provide. To counter this disadvantage, experts from a New York/Australia-based firm Smileyscope developed a solution that could help kids put their trust in their specialists and divert their attention from the punctures.
Florida Pediatrician Explains Effectiveness of Smileyscope Against Fear of Needle in Kids
In Florida, this approach is already used by experts at Winter Park's Doc Pam Pediatric Clinic. Led by the children's health specialist Pamela Trout, the facility is gradually seeing success in the use of the system when attending to operations requiring the usage of needles.
Trout explained in a Wesh report that the assistance of the prickling injection varies in a range of medical procedures in children. The need for injection is included in almost any session, from a vaccination shot, blood draw, and even port access. Because of their developing functions, many kids also experience chronic conditions, and with all of the operations for them, the use of needles is necessary,
The Smileyscope technique is based on a virtual reality program that assists children and pediatricians to commence and finish operations without having trouble with the scare medical needles bring.
During sessions, kids would simply wear the device and watch educational pieces that are interactive. Through the method, the patients would not give off their focus on the piercing injections, but rather on the immersive films they are exposed to.
Trout said that the VR/AR device caters to any pediatric procedures needed by the children. The activities shown in the films complement the steps that the physician does. For example, a shot of the injection could be simultaneous to a swimming fish that nibbles on the patient's arm.
According to Trout, parents are stunned by the effects of the method on the response of their kids, being surprised that their young ones do not even flinch during operations.
Because of the advantage that the Smileyscope offers, Trout invites other specialists to use the technology, saying that clinics, hospitals, and other pediatric officers should make use of the innovation for a more convenient and fun experience for their patients.
Smileyscope and Immersive Medical Operations
According to the report, the developers of the immersive VR/AR system are engaged with over 40 US-based hospitals in giving the assistive method to patients across the country.
The Smileyscope promotes the fusion of modern digital reality technology and evidence-based medical operations for the improvement of patients' experience, mental health, anxiety reduction, and pain management.
Smileyscope Holding Incorporated co-founder and medical doctor Paul Leong said that their award-winning device was developed and approved to help the brain stimuli of patients adjust and seemingly 're-frame' what they feel in the real world during procedures, Dentistry Today reports.
In a randomized trial, Leong and other colleagues found that Smileyscope usage could reduce pain by 60 percent and anxiety by 40 percent. The pediatric patients believe that the synchronous effects of the VR device are significantly more effective than other choices showing only destructive films and games.
The study was published in The Journal of Pediatrics, titled "Virtual Reality for Pediatric Needle Procedural Pain: Two Randomized Clinical Trials."
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