I-Corps: Augmented reality based technologies in treating specific phobia

这个I-Corps项目的广泛影响和商业潜力是朝着开发一种治疗系统的方向取得的进展，这种系统可以帮助患有衰弱性恐惧的个人。该系统基于增强现实和虚拟现实，解决了其他治疗方式的重大局限性。在美国，大约有9%的成年人患有临床上显著的恐惧症，这种恐惧症会给个人和社会带来巨大的损失。尽管特殊恐惧症的衰弱性恐惧特征导致了功能损害，但近三分之二的人不寻求治疗，这可能是由于最有效的治疗方法——暴露疗法的令人厌恶的品质。如果不治疗，恐惧症会对社会产生重大的经济影响。因此，该项目的技术通过通过更可接受的方式提供服务来改善获得治疗的机会，从而对社会产生更广泛的影响。客户应该是有执照的心理健康从业者，该产品将允许他们通过增强现实（AR）耳机让他们的病人接触电脑产生的恐惧刺激。该技术将允许临床医生采用更容易被客户接受的治疗递送系统，同时减少临床医生的时间和总体治疗成本。这个I-Corps项目将包括进行客户发现访谈，以测试产品市场是否适合开发增强现实（AR）平台，该平台可以让人们克服特定恐惧症的特征。该项目基于一项研究，该研究表明，只有少数患有这种高度可治疗的疾病的个体获得干预服务，因为典型的暴露疗法具有高度厌恶的品质。大约四分之一的患者在引入这种治疗时排斥这种治疗。然而，研究还表明，在虚拟现实（VR）环境中进行相同的治疗是一种高度首选的治疗方式，排异率低（3%）。不幸的是，这种方法并没有被治疗师广泛采用，因为用恐惧刺激创造一个完整的虚拟现实环境的时间是昂贵的，导致产品市场适应性差。随着基于AR的技术的快速发展和渲染AR环境相对于VR环境的低成本，这个I-Corps项目提供了VR辅助治疗的好处（更低的患者排斥率/更高的患者偏好），同时避免了临床医生采用的障碍。这项技术有望增加患者获得治疗和参与治疗的机会，同时减少临床医生为个人暴露任务准备的时间和成本。

The broader impacts and commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the progress toward developing a treatment delivery system for individuals with debilitating fears. The system, based on augmented reality and virtual reality, addresses significant limitations of other treatment modalities. Approximately 9% of adults in the United States experience a clinically significant phobia that causes impairments in functioning at high cost to the individual and society. Despite the functional impairment caused by the debilitating fears characteristic of Specific Phobia, nearly 2/3rds of individuals do not seek treatment likely due to the aversive qualities of the most effective treatment, exposure therapy. Untreated, phobias can have significant economic impact on society. Therefore, the technology in this project has broader impacts to society by improving access to treatment through delivery through a more acceptable modality. Customers are expected to be licensed mental health practitioners and the product will allow them to expose their patients to computer generated phobic stimuli via an augmented reality (AR) headset. The technology will allow clinicians to adopt a therapy delivery system that is more acceptable to clients, while reducing clinician time and overall treatment costs.This I-Corps project will involve conducting customer discovery interviews to test product-market fit for the development of an augmented reality (AR) platform that allows people to overcome debilitating fears characteristic of Specific Phobia. The project is based on research indicating that only a minority of individuals with this highly treatable disorder obtain intervention services because typically-delivered exposure therapy has highly aversive qualities. Approximately 1 in 4 patients reject the treatment when it is introduced. However, research also indicates that the same treatment delivered in virtual reality (VR) environments is a highly preferred therapy modality with a low rejection rate (3%). Unfortunately, this approach is not widely adopted by therapists because the time to create a complete VR environment with the fear stimulus is costly, resulting in poor product-market fit. With the rapid development of AR-based technology and the low-cost of rendering AR environments relative to VR environments, this I-Corps project offers the benefits of VR-assisted therapy (lower patient rejection rates/higher patient preference) while avoiding the barriers to clinician adoption. This technology is expected to increase patient access to and engagement in treatment, while simultaneously reducing clinician time and costs spent preparing for individual exposure tasks.