Methodology case study of the application of haptics to combat medic training programs

Of the available training methods for emergency responders, including other methods based on computer technology, virtual reality video game training with haptics (tactile) features will be shown to provide the most effective transfer of skills to real-world emergency situations, providing a model for the development of new training products for combat medics and civilian first responders. This paper aims to provide a methodological case study of haptics use in medical training programs and highlight achievements in terms of performance. Review of these cases show that the addition of haptics to an existing simulation-based training program increases user performance in terms of completion time, error rates, and learning rate. With this case study, haptics can be further incorporated into training programs designed for military combat medics.

Clinical experiment to assess effectiveness of virtual reality teen smoking cessation program

Smoking has increasingly become a burden on America's health and economic status. The fact that four out of every five adult smokers begins tobacco use before the age of eighteen indicates a need for teenage smoking cessation programs. The Virtual Reality Medical Center created an internet-based program that addresses the issue by utilizing cue exposure therapy in home and school environments to teach teens which cues trigger nicotine cravings and how to combat those cravings. The effectiveness of the program was measured through questionnaires administered before and after its use. Results indicated that the participants were engaged in the virtual environment, and that, in every aspect of the program, at least 8% more participants were knowledgeable about the subject than prior to the use of the program. Success of such a program could reduce teen smoking rates, ultimately leading to reduced smoking mortalities, complications, and costs overall.

Emotionally based strategic communications and societal stress-related disorders

This article discusses the potential of emotionally based strategic communications (EBSCs) as an extension of traditional strategic communications in prevention of societal stress-related disorders. The concept of EBSCs takes into consideration dominant emotional maps of a specific sociocultural environment in which communications take place. EBSCs may have a significant potential to transform mainly negative-dominant emotional maps of targeted social groups into more positive ones, as a precondition of building a more resilient and stress-resistant social environment. A better understanding of dominant emotional maps and their conditioning may facilitate restoration of more positive emotional maps by touching the right emotions of significant parts of the targeted social groups in the right way. Dominant emotional maps of societies afflicted by economic downturns, natural disasters, conflicts etc., are typically characterized by negatively valenced emotions. Persistent negatively valenced group-based dominant emotions may be used as a quantitative statistical measure of potential stress-related disorders and post-traumatic stress disorders among respected group members. The toxic power of extreme negative emotions, attitudes, actions, and behavior might be reduced by EBSCs as a communication method for transforming negative-dominant emotional maps into more positive ones. EBSCs are conceptualized as the positively valenced stimulation of a negatively emotionally affected group by an appropriate communication strategy to minimize dominant-negative emotional maps and behavior of the targeted group.

Effectiveness evaluation for short-term group pre-deployment VR computer-assisted stress inoculation training provided to Polish ISAF soldiers

The goal of this study was to assess effectiveness of a short collective stress inoculation training (SIT) conducted according to the methodology of the Virtual Reality Medical Center of San Diego (Training of Physiological Control Exposure to Virtual Stressor while Maintaining Physiological Control). The results obtained indicate a short-term effectiveness of the training as a method of tension reduction. However, in the long-term perspective these results are ambiguous and they suggest a need of further research. In order to extend the analysis effects of temperamental factors on training effectiveness was presented.

Ubiquitous health in practice: the interreality paradigm

In this paper we introduce a new ubiquitous computing paradigm for behavioral health care: "Interreality". Interreality integrates assessment and treatment within a hybrid environment, that creates a bridge between the physical and virtual worlds. Our claim is that bridging virtual experiences (fully controlled by the therapist, used to learn coping skills and emotional regulation) with real experiences (allowing both the identification of any critical stressors and the assessment of what has been learned) using advanced technologies (virtual worlds, advanced sensors and PDA/mobile phones) may improve existing psychological treatment. To illustrate the proposed concept, a clinical scenario is also presented and discussed: Daniela, a 40 years old teacher, with a mother affected by Alzheimer's disease.

Personal health systems for mental health: the European projects

Since the European funded project VREPAR--Virtual Reality in Neuro-Psycho-Physiology (1995)--different European research activities have been using virtual reality and advanced information and communication technologies to improve the quality of care in the treatment of many different mental health disorders including anxiety disorders, eating disorders and obesity. Now the European Commission funding is shifting from the traditional hospital-centred and reactive healthcare delivery model toward a person-centred and preventive one. The main outcome of this shift is the "Personal Health Systems" (PHS) paradigm that aims at offering continuous, quality controlled, and personalized health services to empowered individuals regardless of location. The paper introduces four recently funded projects--Interstress, Monarca, Optimi and Psyche--that aim at using PHS based on virtual reality, biosensors and/or mobile technologies to improve the treatment of bipolar disorders, depression and psychological stress.