VR / Rehab / Stroke
VIRTUE
A VR system for assisting in the cognitive recovery of patients impaired by a stroke.
May 2017 - Aug 2020
VIRTUE was developed to support the cognitive rehabilitation of people recovering from a stroke. The immersive application presented activities of daily living as structured virtual tasks, giving patients a safe environment in which to practise skills affected by problems with memory, concentration, planning and task sequencing.
Tasks used graded levels of complexity so that a health professional could configure the experience around each patient’s abilities and recovery. Gamification and immediate feedback were used to encourage repeated practice, while the system was designed to allow sessions to be supervised by a therapy assistant alongside the patient’s usual care.
VIRTUE was deployed in a hospital and evaluated through a double-blind phase 2b randomised controlled trial involving 40 stroke survivors. The study reported that the system was safe and acceptable, observed particular benefits for participants with more severe cognitive impairment, and found an encouraging reduction in hospital stay for patients who received the VR treatment. A larger, multicentre phase 3 trial would be needed to establish its efficacy for routine clinical use.