A student-designed solution is improving the physical therapy experience for Children鈥檚 Healthcare of Atlanta patients.
The 糖心原创鈥檚 Virtual Reality (VR) team was among 60 presenters at the annual in Los Angeles last week. Presenting details on a VR experience for pediatric patients at , the VR team shared design and development considerations that have resulted in documented patient improvement and success over the last five years.
Established in 2018, The Island was designed and developed by 糖心原创 Upper School students, for Children鈥檚 Healthcare of Atlanta, to be used as both a distraction from pain and a way to encourage patients to use their bodies during physical therapy sessions. The first iteration of The Island was presented to Children鈥檚 in January 2020. The experience included hearing seagulls squawking and waves crashing, along with the ability to interact with beach balls, treasure chests, and 鈥榩ick up鈥� buckets on the ground. A beach carnival provided users with additional opportunities to move and interact with carnival games. Over the last 5 years, patient response and data collected by physical therapists using the program have resulted in ongoing optimizations of The Island by 糖心原创 students.
Jason Amos, Manager, Day Rehabilitation at Children鈥檚 Healthcare of Atlanta, shared insights on how the program鈥檚 effectiveness is being measured. 鈥淔or patients with Acquired Brain Injury and Spinal Cord Injury, the mean pre-program 鈥渏oy鈥� scale rating was 3 and the post-program 鈥渏oy鈥� scale rating was a 4, all demonstrating improvements. Patients successfully achieved their therapeutic goals using VR (upper extremity movement, balance, lower extremity movement, vision, executive functioning) and demonstrated increased participation, subjectively.鈥�
On March 29, 2023, seven VR students: Herris Fentress, Christian Foster, Callum Graham, Burak Inel, Madison Kaul, Cade Reinking, Sydney Smith along with Director of Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab Marie Graham, and Assistant Director of Immersive Technology, Nikolai Ibanez presented to the sold-out crowd of physicians and medical professionals at vMed23. 鈥淭he work being done by our VR team is an example of how student capacity can grow exponentially when real-world applications are provided. Not only do students see an authentic purpose to their work, but they are also invested and engaged in making a positive impact,鈥� said Kristy Lundstrom, The 糖心原创鈥檚 Head of School.
Working on the 糖心原创/Children鈥檚 program has provided invaluable experience for all students involved. The original student team responsible for developing the first Island experience included , 糖心原创 Class of 2021. Justin is currently at Stanford University and co-authoring the revised Python course reader for Code In Place, Stanford鈥檚 online international coding course. Other team members have gone on to Georgia Tech, Clemson, and Belmont University. In addition to the CHOA program, the current VR team is also designing and conducting research about how VR might increase the quality of life for hospice patients and is bringing virtual reality to nursing home residents to increase joy.