Purpose

The purpose of this research is to determine the effect that repeated, personalized virtual reality experiences have on symptom severity, comparing self-reported symptom severity both pre and post each session, and overtime across sessions. We will also determine if this intervention results in a high rating of presence in VR, and if presence is related to the magnitude of the change in symptoms.

Conditions

Eligibility

Eligible Ages
All ages
Eligible Genders
All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
No

Inclusion Criteria

  • Patients who are hospice care eligible as defined by the Medicare Hospice benefit and receive hospice or palliative care from Hospice and Palliative Care Buffalo.

Exclusion Criteria

  • Their Palliative Performance Score (PPS) is below 30. - They are not cognitively intact (display symptoms of delirium or senility, or have a cognitive diagnosis such as Alzheimer's or Dementia) as measured by the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) (Inouye et al., 1990) - They have hearing, vision, or speech impairments that are uncorrected. - They have current symptoms of or a history of dizziness, nausea, headaches, migraines, seizures, or motion sickness. - They do not speak English. - They are not 18 years old.

Study Design

Phase
N/A
Study Type
Interventional
Allocation
N/A
Intervention Model
Single Group Assignment
Intervention Model Description
Single group open pilot, pre- post-intervention study
Primary Purpose
Supportive Care
Masking
None (Open Label)

Arm Groups

ArmDescriptionAssigned Intervention
Experimental
Single-Arm Open Pilot
Pre- Post-intervention design. The intervention that participants will be experiencing is personalized virtual reality experiences. The content of this experience will be determined at the initial visit during which the participant will complete a preference questionnaire which identifies the location they want to "go" to. These experiences will be filmed on the insta360 One R camera by the research coordinator. Each experience will be approximately 20 minutes. To view the videos participants will wear the Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset.
  • Behavioral: Personalized virtual reality experience
    The intervention that participants will be experiencing is personalized virtual reality experiences. The content of this experience will be determined at the initial visit during which the participant will complete a preference questionnaire which identifies the location they want to "go" to. These experiences will be filmed on the insta360 One R camera by the research coordinator. Each experience will be approximately 20 minutes. To view the videos participants will wear the Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset.

Recruiting Locations

More Details

Status
Recruiting
Sponsor
State University of New York at Buffalo

Study Contact

Catherine M Mann, EdD
716-829-6036
cmmann@buffalo.edu

Detailed Description

The purpose of this research is to determine the effect that repeated, personalized virtual reality experiences have on symptom severity, comparing self-reported symptom severity both pre and post each session, and overtime across sessions. We will also determine if this intervention results in a high rating of presence in VR, and if presence is related to the magnitude of the change in symptoms. H1: Symptom severity will decrease from pre-intervention to post-intervention. H2: The change in symptom severity will be greater in session two than it was in session one. H3: Presence score will be higher in session two than session one. To recruit 30-40 participants, we will have our clinical team working to help the research team identify eligible participants from their caseloads. We will be including all hospice eligible patients, this includes people who are enrolled in hospice care but also a subset of those who are enrolled in palliative care who qualify for hospice but have refused to or haven't yet transitioned to hospice care. The site serves about 670 (as of May 2023) patients a month. Therefore, it is the researcher's intent to recruit about 3 patents per month, or a total of 30-40 patients (about 5% of the monthly population) over the course of one year. The intervention that participants will be experiencing is personalized virtual reality experiences. The content of this experience will be determined at the initial visit during which the participant will complete a preference questionnaire which identifies the location they want to "go" to. These experiences will be filmed on the insta360 One R camera by the research coordinator. Each experience will be approximately 20 minutes. To view the videos participants will wear the Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset.

Notice

Study information shown on this site is derived from ClinicalTrials.gov (a public registry operated by the National Institutes of Health). The listing of studies provided is not certain to be all studies for which you might be eligible. Furthermore, study eligibility requirements can be difficult to understand and may change over time, so it is wise to speak with your medical care provider and individual research study teams when making decisions related to participation.