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Could Virtual Reality play a role in the rehabilitation after COVID-19 infection?
  1. Merlijn Smits1,
  2. J Bart Staal2,3,
  3. Harry van Goor1
  1. 1 Department of Surgery, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
  2. 2 IQ healthcare, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
  3. 3 School for Allied Health, Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Research Group, HAN University of Applied Sciences, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to Merlijn Smits; Merlijn.smits{at}radboudumc.nl

Abstract

Post-COVID-19 patients, particularly those who needed high care, are expected to have high needs for physical, psychological and cognitive rehabilitation. Yet, the resources needed to provide rehabilitation treatment are expected to be inadequate because healthcare systems faced a shortage of high-quality treatment of these symptoms already before the COVID-19 crisis emerged in patients with comparable needs. In this viewpoint, we discuss the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) administering fast, tailor-made rehabilitation at a distance, and offering a solution for the impending surge of demand for rehabilitation after COVID-19. VR consists of a head-mounted display (HMD) that can bring the user by computer-generated visuals into an immersive, realistic multi-sensory environment. Several studies on VR show its potential for rehabilitation and suggest VR to be beneficial in post-COVID-19. The immersion of VR may increase therapy adherence and may distract the patient from experienced fatigue and anxiety. Barriers still have to be overcome to easily implement VR in healthcare. We argue that embedding VR in virtual care platforms would assist in overcoming these barriers and would stimulate the spread of VR therapy, both for post-COVID-19 patients in the present and possibly for other patients with similar rehabilitation needs in the future.

  • Exercise rehabilitation
  • Physiotherapy
  • Psychology
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2020-000943

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors participated in the conceptualisation of the article. MS wrote the first draft, BS and HvG reviewed and provided comments. All authors reviewed, commented on and approved the final draft.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not declared.

    • Ethics approval No ethical approval was obtained as no study participants were involved.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement No additional data are available.