The third week in March is designated to recognize the Healthcare Human Resources (HR) Professionals and their important role in the continuum of care. This week celebrates the hard work HR professionals do who work in hospitals, health systems, clinics, and other healthcare organizations. Today’s healthcare landscape creates more complex issues for HR professionals who navigate challenges like talent shortages, compensation and benefits, employee wellness, and government regulations. We’re spotlighting three of Magellan Health’s Healthcare HR Professionals who each explain why they chose a career in Healthcare HR, and what is the most rewarding and challenging aspects of working in this field:

• Tammy Curry, lead payroll specialist, has been with Magellan for three and a half years.

• Karen Cronan, principal compensation consultant, has been with Magellan for five years.

• Beth Moore, human resources business consultant, Magellan Federal, has been with Magellan Federal for eight years.

Continue reading to learn more from Tammy, Beth, and Karen on their experiences as Healthcare HR Professionals:

Why did you want to pursue Healthcare HR and what is the most rewarding aspect of working in this field?

Tammy: I love working with numbers, so payroll is natural for me and exciting. From my understanding, across the board at all companies I’ve ever worked for, payroll is the most important and vital department in the company. The most rewarding aspect of working in this field is knowing that the company’s biggest asset, our employees, are paid correctly and on time. That makes both me and the employees happy!

Karen: I have always been interested in medicine, physiology, health, fitness, and wellbeing. That combined with my love for mathematics and compensation attracted me to HR and compensation roles in healthcare.

Beth: Magellan Federal HR is a third career for me and a great fit following directing federal behavioral health contracts and an Air Force clinical social work career. I most enjoy providing HR consultation to leaders across the employee experience from organizational design informing staffing solutioning of new business to complex employee relations and retention areas.

What are some challenges you face in this profession and how do you overcome them?

Tammy: Working in payroll can be challenging at times but can also be immensely rewarding. The biggest challenge that I face in my profession is having to chase after employees to submit their timecards for pay processing.

Karen: In recent years with the pandemic and rapidly changing economic environment, it has been challenging to keep up with the market with respect to the ability to attract and retain talent.  The pandemic induced early retirement of so many baby boomers, which greatly affected the talent pool.  That, combined with the much smaller cohorts of younger generations, has really strained recruiting efforts, and driven up salary demands.

Beth: Post-COVID, many behavioral health professional workplace location options have moved to a tele-work environment. While this expands the options for the job seeker, it can be challenging for staffing site locations. In my role, I work closely with operational leaders and talent acquisition to develop plans to mitigate these challenges and look for innovative solutions to meet the staffing requirements.

Is there anything you’d like to highlight about working in Healthcare HR?

Tammy: Healthcare HR provides a range of opportunities to progress, which includes payroll, benefits, compensation, recruiting, and human resources. I love knowing that if I’m not challenged in my current position, there is always room for growth.

Karen: I find working in Healthcare HR rewarding because in healthcare, we provide very important care and services to fellow human beings which makes a positive impact in the world.

Beth: I particularly enjoy my role in Federal’s Health Services Division and Strategy and Growth consulting on organizational design, human capital labor category solutioning, and workforce planning.  It’s the collaboration with the team that’s exciting with the goal of aligning business objectives with Magellan’s strategic goals.

What does National HR Healthcare Professionals week mean to you?

Tammy: HR professionals are learners who seek new ways to solve old problems, enablers who make others better, and value creators who help all stakeholders win. National Healthcare HR Professionals week means that HR professionals in healthcare organizations throughout the nation are recognized for their vital role across the continuum of care.

Karen: It gives those of us who work for healthcare companies an opportunity to highlight and celebrate our participation in serving those in need.

Beth: It’s recognition of one of the many areas HR professionals may focus. Healthcare is a dynamic and challenging field for HR professionals and it’s great to see the specialization recognition.

As a Medical Director for Magellan Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania, Chris Squillaro, DO, manages many different responsibilities. As a supervisor of the Pennsylvania medical staff, he performs reviews, attends complaint and grievance hearings, and leads various rounds with our care managers. Dr. Squillaro also provides the executive leadership with input on strategy and focusing on prioritizing what’s important to our county customers. Whenever a medical opinion or perspective is needed, Dr. Squillaro, who has been with Magellan since 2021, always provides that medical input into the initiatives and intervention being done in Pennsylvania. Continue reading to learn more about what innovative behavioral health projects and initiatives Dr. Squillaro is currently working on in Pennsylvania:

What sort of innovative projects are you currently working on?

There’s an enterprise-wide movement to develop a common suicide pathway to decrease suicidality. Pennsylvania is heavily involved with that project although it involves more than just Pennsylvania. I’ve been working on this with the corporate and Pennsylvania leadership.

We are also doing a project in Pennsylvania called Project Red, which aims to decrease readmission rates and standardize the discharge process. This is a project that’s being led by two researchers out of Massachusetts who had developed Project Red originally for the medical side, and they want to convert it to the behavioral side.

I’m also involved in a trauma informed care summit because of a Pennsylvania Commonwealth initiative. The goal is to transition all the Commonwealth residential treatment facilities to tiered trauma designations that demonstrate competency in trauma care for children and adolescents in that level of care. Included in this would be consistent trauma screening and treatment, decreasing physical and chemical restraints, having a trauma informed lens as patients move through care and awareness of experiences in the milieu that may be triggering.

We also have a medication adherence project where I clinically supervise the pharmacist who is working on improving medication adherence for some of our more severe patients through direct member education and training.

Why is Magellan Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania the best place to do these projects?

I think we have a holistic view of the healthcare delivery system, not just within individual units across the country but enterprise wide. We have our eyes on national issues through touchpoints with the corporate team. We understand what Pennsylvania’s priorities are, what their initiatives are, and what issues are important to them. We can get even more granular at a county level. Each county is in tune with what are its’ constituents wants and needs. Pennsylvania is very diverse, there are swings in socioeconomic status between regions and resources. We get this population health view at a national level, that then is informed all the way down to the county level so we can see it not only for what’s important from a national perspective, but then in each Pennsylvania community. With that information, we can come up with the best way to approach problems.

I think there’s also a lot of willingness and eagerness to use technology at Magellan. It helps us to sort and track outcomes. Magellan is really getting involved with technology, this is something that’ll be hugely helpful for what we can do in the future.

What are your thoughts on the culture at Magellan Health? How has that culture impacted the projects you’re working on?

Before I worked at Magellan, I was a provider. Magellan has always been willing to try new things. If providers had a good way of solving common problems, in my experience, Magellan was certainly willing to entertain it and develop programming around it. I think that willingness to adapt, change, and try new things is what makes projects successful. The culture of being able to move around problems and to adapt is one of the things I saw since before working at Magellan and has only been reaffirmed since I’ve joined this team.

What direction do you see healthcare going in? Have you noticed any exciting trends in the healthcare industry? What lessons are there to learn in other industries that can be applied to healthcare?

I feel we are learning from the way that care is delivered on the medical side. Using outcomes and data to make decisions is one of the things that’s exciting in behavioral health. Some screening tools that have been developed have become more reliable and it’s starting to create a common language that we can have with our medical counterparts. This then creates opportunities to coordinate at key levels of care. There’s also a lot more collaboration between medical and behavioral health. It’s not new information that behavioral health has a significant impact on medical costs overall and medical quality. I see medicine becoming more integrative. On the behavioral health side, we’re catching up on the importance of data-driven decision-making outcomes and managing from a population health perspective.

Another trend is in customer care. We are learning from industries where customer satisfaction is critical to ease of access, utilization, adherence, and adoption of a plan. We’re doing a lot of customer surveys and making sure people are happy with the service that they’re getting.

Lastly, we’re adopting the standardization and checklist mentality that I most associate with the airline industry. This is a public safety concern that has been effectively managed by airlines to assure safety and limit mistakes. We are utilizing and promoting standardized tools and checklists to consistently diagnosis issues. We are then using algorithms to standardize treatment pathways. This assures consistencies across providers and assures that the most appropriate evidence-based interventions are being utilized to treat people.

According to Gallup®, 70% of the population is struggling or suffering, and 70% of employees are not engaging at work. Investing in wellbeing at work is critical to the success of your employees and organization.

The impact of wellbeing extends far beyond how employees feel — it affects the number of sick days they take, their job performance, burnout levels, retention rates and the organization’s bottom line.

We will dive into these issues in this blog post, and you can learn by listening to the webinar recording: “eMbrace the link between employee engagement and wellbeing.”  Click here to access the recording.

Organizations should care about wellbeing

Contrary to what many believe, wellbeing is not just about being happy or physically fit. Wellbeing encompasses all aspects of our lives:  how our lives are going, feeling good about our thoughts life experiences and what is important to us.

Poor wellbeing affects employees and organizations:

• 75% of medical costs accrued are due to largely preventable conditions.
• $20 million of additional lost opportunity for every 10,000 workers due to struggling or suffering employees.
• $322 billion of turnover and lost productivity costs globally due to employee burnout.

 In contrast, employees with high wellbeing are more resilient during widespread or personal tough times, less likely to have unplanned days out of the office and more engaged than those with low wellbeing.

Traditional EAPs are not enough

Traditional Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) fall short because they average about 5% engagement and focus mainly on distressed employees. Low utilization and a reactive model leave a large gap to fill to meet the wellbeing needs of all employees. Organizations need a proactive program that benefits all employees.

Learn more in the webinar recording.

Building a thriving culture of wellbeing

Leaders that bring engagement and wellbeing together create a high-performance environment where the two inform and build on one another. Magellan Healthcare and Gallup® collaborated to create eMbrace, a fully integrated, evidence-based solution delivering improved employee wellbeing and engagement across six key areas of their lives: Emotional, Career, Social, Financial, Physical and Community.

Through eMbrace, employees and organizations can measure their wellbeing and discover where they are suffering, struggling, and thriving. Employees receive a personalized plan that guides them to services and resources to help them improve their total wellbeing and lead thriving lives.

Resources:

• https://www.gallup.com/workplace/215924/well-being.aspx
• https://www.gallup.com/workplace/320297/invest-employees-wellbeing-afford-not.aspx
• https://www.gallup.com/workplace/358082/struggling-suffering-employees-twice-likely-leave.aspx

What is it and how to get started

Mindfulness has become a popular topic over the last decade, and for good reason. A growing body of research is showing incredible health, performance, and relationship benefits to adopting the practice. But what exactly is mindfulness and how does one practice it?

Mindfulness is a particular way of focusing on the present moment without judgment. It is a skill, a practice, and a state that helps counteract our brain’s natural tendency to time travel back into the past or ahead into the future. Being in the present moment more often is what enables us to build meaningful relationships and perform at our best.

Unfortunately, most of us are more familiar with not being in the present moment. Research suggests we spend nearly 50% of our time thinking about something other than what we are doing. It’s when you arrive home from work excited to see your family and just as you sit down at the dinner table you remember an email you forgot to reply to and suddenly you’ve missed your kid sharing the best part of their day. Or it’s the moment you’re at work trying to focus during a meeting and your mind wanders back to an argument you had with your spouse that morning. It can also be the moment when you are sitting down to finish a report, but you begin daydreaming about your upcoming vacation. And it’s a hundred moments in between.

Understanding Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of catching our minds when they wander and intentionally bringing them back to where we are—put simply: it’s the practice of being present. The more we practice, the more quickly we’re able to reestablish our mind in the present moment before it impacts relationships or performance.

To be truly mindful is to be able to recognize as your mind wanders away from the here and now, accept the wandering, and recenter your mind back to the present to be where your feet are.

Mindfulness has a long and rich history dating back more than 2,500 years. While this may activate images of ancient monks in stillness and solitude, in the last 15 years, an enormous amount of rigorous research has been conducted supporting the benefits of a mindfulness practice—many that are particularly relevant to thriving in our fast-paced, always-on culture.

Mindfulness Benefits
Mindfulness has been shown to act as a buffer against cognitive anxiety, improve memory and learning, improve sleep, and reduce fatigue. It is also associated with increased frequency in optimal performance states, improved performance in high-intensity contexts, and better regulation of emotion and stress. Importantly, these benefits can be realized without spending hours upon hours a day in silent meditation. Mindfulness training research suggests that 8-20 minutes a day is all you need to see meaningful benefits. If you want a more exact prescription, Dr. Amishi Jha, one of the leading mindfulness researchers, has determined that 12 minutes a day, five days a week is the most effective “dose.” It balances what time-pressed people will actually commit to and it benefits their attention.

Getting Started
Magellan Federal is the world’s largest single employer of professionals with specialized training in performance psychology coaching. Our cognitive performance coaches have delivered education and training to more than 2.7 million within the Army population in the past five years. Here are some simple exercises our coaches teach to help build positive mindfulness habits:

• Practice 1 minute of mindful breathing. Set a timer for one minute and simply turn your attention to your breath. What does it feel like to inhale? What does it feel like to exhale? Try pausing at the top and bottom of each breath. If you find 1 minute too easy, aim for 3 minutes or more.
• Practice mindfulness during everyday activities. For example, while washing the dishes focus on the temperature of the water, the slipperiness of the soap, the sound of the dishes. Every time your mind wanders to something else (as it naturally will), gently guide it back to the dishes. Surprisingly, even for menial tasks like dishes, people who focus on the task, instead of daydreaming, report greater levels of happiness.
• Conduct a brief body scan. Find a quiet place to sit, start with a few mindful breaths, and then turn your attention to your body. Start at the top of your head and work downward, just noting what your body feels like. Don’t get stuck in any particular place; just notice comfort or discomfort and move on until you get to your toes. Finish with a few mindful breaths.

Know that as you try any of these activities, your mind will wander; it is completely natural. Mindfulness is the practice of gently bringing your mind back to your target. Each time your mind wanders, think of it as a repetition to strengthen the skill of returning to the present moment.

Making it Stick — Find or Build a Community of Support
Like most new habits, developing a mindfulness practice can be tricky. Research has shown that learning with and from others on a similar path has a staggering effect on success.

Magellan Federal believes in a human-centered approach when building new habits like mindfulness. We are currently developing a solution that models the success we have found through our work with the Army, which will incorporate live coaching sessions and a community of support to further enhance successful habit change. Finding or building a group or partnership that supports your mindfulness goals and offers encouragement and motivation along the way will make you more likely to succeed in creating mindfulness habits that stick. You might consider adding a mindful minute with your family before dinner, starting a team meeting with a mindfulness practice, or finding your own unique way to build community around mindfulness practice.

Learn More
Magellan Federal’s holistic approach seeks to help people not only improve performance, but health, relationships, and culture—and mindfulness is a key piece of the puzzle for many people. If you are Interested in starting a mindfulness practice or connecting to a community of support, contact us today.

Article originally published on MFed Inform.

The destruction left by Hurricane Ian back in September serves as a reminder that times of crisis can often occur quickly with little or no warning. During these events, parents may be coping with children who feel increased worry and anxiousness. Parents and professionals can help by providing guidance on how to develop an at-home safety plan for times of crisis. Supplying children with the knowledge of what to do if an emergency occurs can reduce feelings of anxiety and provide them with a better sense of control in an uncontrollable situation. Below is guidance that our Military and Family Life counselors share with parents.

Emergency Plan Directions

• Designate a general meeting place. Establish an agreed-upon safe place to meet if a parent will be unable to pick the child up from school or will not be at home. This could be a neighbor’s house or community meeting space. Children should be reassured that the adult they are with is aware of the plan, and the parent will meet them at the arranged meeting location.
• Create an emergency backpack. The backpack should have items the child may need in the event of a crisis, specifically, items necessary if an adult was unavailable at the time of the crisis.
• Compile a list of all emergency phone numbers. These numbers should be programmed into a child’s phone, if they have one, written down at home, and placed in the emergency backpack.
• Create a social media plan. Social media sites can be very effective in times of crisis. Discuss what social media site(s) will be used for family communication and information if cell service is down.
• Develop plans for the natural disasters most likely to occur in your area. These plans could include backup locations to go in case the family must leave their home, such as a relative’s house, a community shelter, or another designated safe place.

For even more tips on preparing an emergency plan, refer to the “Make a plan” section of  Ready.gov.

Crisis Conversation Tips for Parents

In addition to creating an emergency plan for their home, parents will also need to discuss crises and other traumatic events, such as natural disasters, with their children. It can be difficult to know how to approach those topics or what to say that will be helpful. Below are tips for engaging in these conversations (Psychology Today, 7.26.22).

• Keep words and language child-friendly and age appropriate.
• Initiate the conversation in a calm manner.
• Leave time for the child to ask questions and remain silent during their questions or requests for clarification.
• Ask if they have any worries about a particular situation.
• For even more tips on preparing an emergency plan, refer to the “Make a plan” section of ready.gov.

Creating an emergency plan and having open communication about this topic can benefit both the child and adult and may reduce feelings of anxiety in the child.

There are numerous studies looking at risk factors related to suicidality. In mental health-related training and educational textbooks, lists are presented on the contributing risks for, and protective factors against, suicide. In this article, I’d like to bring attention to one of those items in particular and share a brief synopsis of a scientific experiment.

About 70 years ago in the mid 1950’s, Dr. Curt Richter conducted a series of experiments on rats. No, this is not related to suicide directly, but read on, you’ll see the connection at the end.

Remember, I’m “making a long story short” here. In the series of experiments, a research team placed wild rats in buckets of water where they had no opportunity to escape. Understandably, the rats gave their swimming best to keep afloat and survive, but after a few minutes the rats looked like they were about to drown due to exhaustion and being unable to continue swimming. The researchers rescued them right before drowning. The rats were held, dried up and helped to recover. The researchers then placed the same rats back into the bucket of water.

Knowing that the rats had just swam to near death by drowning due to exhaustion only a few minutes earlier, the researchers would’ve thought the rats would reach that level of exhaustion and feeling of “I can’t swim anymore, I’m drowning” much sooner than the last time which had only lasted no more than 15 minutes.

But this second time around, these same rats kept on swimming for hours!

Having tried to account for a physiological explanation unsuccessfully, the researchers came away with postulating that the outcome was best explained by the psychological state of the rats rather than their physiological state. Sort of like, “mind over matter.”

What had changed to account for the hours of swimming was the fact that the rats experienced being rescued and cared for the previous time. They had developed an optimistic expectation of a positive outcome, namely, hope–a positive belief in their future that “we just have to keep on swimming to stay afloat until we are rescued again.”

That’s what made the rats not give up and keep on fighting (swimming) for hours. It was hope!

Now you see the answer to the title question of this article “What’s hope got to do with it?” and why having hope versus hopelessness plays a role in suicide prevention.

Putting aside the inhumane nature of how some studies were conducted 70 years ago, it is well understood that the lives of rats are much different from those of human beings.

In a vacuum, one cannot draw a simple line between this experiment and the human experience with its intricate relationships of stressors and complicating factors such as trauma and addiction.

With or without the presence of addiction, frequently there is a loving caretaker who is also fatigued. Hence, the importance of involving professionals, not only for the person who is dealing with depression, suicidality, trauma or addiction, but also for the caretaker of that person.

Having hope, a belief that things will get better and a future-oriented optimism for “better days ahead” are protective factors against suicide, whereas the opposite–hopelessness–is a contributing factor to suicide.

Fleetwood Mac exclaimed “Don’t stop” (thinking about tomorrow) in 1977. Gloria Gaynor added “I will survive” in 1978, and Journey chimed in with “Don’t stop believing” in 1981.

Perhaps famed author F. Dostoevsky said it best a century earlier, “To live without hope is to cease to live.”

Additional suicide prevention resources and support

On September 22, Magellan Healthcare hosted a webinar, “The role of mental health recovery in suicide prevention,” for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. I participated on the panel, along with Dr. Pratt, Dr. Williams and Stacey Volz, who shared her inspiring recovery story from mental health challenges and multiple suicide attempts.

Watch a recording of the webinar as we share our knowledge and personal and professional experiences in addressing mental health and substance use challenges to prevent suicide: https://www.magellanhealthcare.com/event/the-role-of-mental-health-recovery-in-suicide-prevention/.

Visit Magellanhealthcare.com/Prevent-Suicide for more information and materials to learn more and spread awareness about suicide prevention.

Since joining Magellan Health over a year ago, Karen Riccardi has been a part of developing various behavioral healthcare products aimed at helping people to live healthy, vibrant lives.  As senior product development manager, Riccardi’s main responsibility involves the development of behavioral health products and solutions that positively impact the lives of others and drive growth for the company.   Some of the products she has worked on include Magellan Healthcare’s Digital Emotional Wellbeing tool, Senior Assistance solution, and Collaborative Care product.  Riccardi, who is a Licensed Professional Counselor based in Virginia, discusses the products she is working on below.

What sort of cool, innovative projects are you currently working on?

Most recently, I have been working on the implementation of our Collaborative Care Management solution that increases access to behavioral health screening and care for low to moderate-risk behavioral health conditions within the primary care setting.  By using NeuroFlow’s technology and Magellan’s clinical management, we can improve medical and behavioral health integration.

I’ve also been working on the launch of our new Senior Assistance solution powered by DUOS. Senior Assistance helps address older adults’ social determinants of health (SDOH) needs and assists them in aging independently in their own homes by building long-term, high trust, one-on-one relationships with a personal assistant called a Duo.  Our pilot last year successfully addressed 93% of members’ SDOH needs.

There have been several other innovative products and projects I have had the chance to work on, including the development of the Wellbeing Navigator, which provides one-on-one support and guidance for employees and their household members with complex life concerns, the launch of eMbrace, Magellan’s evidence-based solution that supports members’ wellbeing, and development of a suicide prevention solution that includes education, awareness, tools, resources, and addresses other health issues such as substance use and teen mental health.

Why is Magellan Health the best place to develop these projects?

Magellan has a long history of behavioral health innovation and is well known in the behavioral health space.  The history and knowledge, along with leaders who encourage us to be creative and explore new, innovative solutions, make Magellan the best place to develop products that benefit the lives of our members.

What are your thoughts Magellan’s culture and how has it impacted your projects?

Everyone at Magellan is here because they want to make a difference and are dedicated to the work they do. It is energizing to work with coworkers who are passionate about what they do.  This makes working together easier and allows us to come together as a team.

What exciting trends have you noticed in the healthcare industry? In what direction do you see healthcare going? What lessons are there to learn from other industries that can be applied to healthcare?

There has been increased recognition of the importance of mental health and how it is a vital part of one’s wellbeing.  Telehealth and digital tools have proven to be effective means of treatment and are helping to address accessibility to providers.  Individuals have more choices today on how they want to receive behavioral health care, allowing them to be more in control of their healthcare.  It is vital we continue to focus on products and solutions that are high quality, demonstrate positive outcomes, and provide an exceptional patient experience. Individuals need to feel comfortable in seeking behavioral health care when they do not feel well mentally.

In 2019, Time magazine listed virtual reality (VR) as one of the 12 innovations that will change health care and medicine in the 2020s. With this projection, the probability that you will use VR sometime in your life is high! VR is currently being used in a variety of fields, including

• Mental health
• Pain management
• Rehabilitation
• Training and education

VR is not a fad, as studies are underway for its potential efficacy to treat Alzheimer’s disease, depression, addiction, and other illnesses. This new field of medicine collectively referred to as medical extended reality (MXR), encompasses VR and augmented reality (AR). There are many aspects in the VR landscape including safety, regulations, and value to name a few. Let’s dive in and explore some of the clinical uses of this emerging trend.

Pediatric Intervention
Children are often under-treated and under-recognized when it comes to managing pain, fear, and anxiety. Thus, VR is utilized in children’s hospitals, such as Stanford Children’s Health, to engage and distract children during painful procedures. At the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, VR is used in several ways to reduce pain and stress, including the use of AR goggles for patients in the pre-op so they can watch movies and play games prior to surgery, and the use of VR games in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Mental Health Treatment
With an estimated 52.9 million adults suffering from mental illness in 2020 according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), one of the biggest challenges today is the rising demand for mental health treatment and a shortage of available providers. As another tool to tackle mental health conditions, VR now contributes to the availability of additional resources.

The use of VR software simulates real-world settings that closely resemble the surroundings of daily life so that triggering stimuli such as anxiety, paranoia, fear, and cravings can be assessed and treated. Anxiety disorders are already being treated using virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) as a potentially scalable tool. In addition to anxiety-like disorders, VR is being studied for several other disorders.

There is evidence that VRET reduces post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, with sustained improvements at six and twelve months after treatment. Among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a recent research initiative demonstrated that VR combined with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) improved specific phobias. For seniors who suffer from social isolation, Rendever has developed a VR platform designed to reduce depression and loneliness.

Chronic Pain Treatment
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey in 2019 found that 20.4% of US adults have experienced chronic pain. Persistent pain is linked to depression and anxiety and can become an overlapping symptom.

In a study conducted by Cedars Sinai, VR reduced hospitalized patients’ pain scores by 24% and was most effective for patients with severe pain. In November 2021, a prescription medical device (RelieVRx) was authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the first at-home VR therapeutic as an adjunct to treat chronic lower back pain.

Virtual Rehabilitation
While the benefits of physical therapy have long been established, some patients who would benefit from PT do not have access to it. In recent years, VR rehabilitation has been gaining traction with a host of conditions from chronic pain, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease to multiple sclerosis, dementia, and cerebral palsy. VR-assisted rehab may offer advantages for patients such as improved patient engagement and motivation, poststroke functional recovery, and improved mobility in Parkinson’s patients.

Training and Education
It can be challenging for educators to meet learning objectives through standardized medical training, especially as healthcare systems evolve. VR training and education, allow personnel, students, and residents to learn in a controlled environment while minimizing risks to real patients. As a result, VR systems are increasingly used in hospitals to train residents, assist surgeons with surgical planning, and educate patients. In a UCLA study, participants using the Osso VR platform significantly improved their overall surgical performance compared to conventional training methods.

Health Inequities
The healthcare system continues to be affected by structural racism, affecting the well-being of all people, especially those who have historically been marginalized. The use of VR as a training tool is currently being explored for a better understanding of the cultural needs of patients, with the possibility of VR becoming a tool for increasing empathy and giving people a broader perspective when interacting with individuals of different racial and economic backgrounds.

With VR technology developing at record speed and its potential to transform healthcare, we are keeping VR on our radar. We encourage you to learn more about VR and the world of MXR by visiting our website to explore our latest white paper: Virtual Reality – An Emerging Paradigm in Healthcare

This is just the beginning!