SBIR Phase I: Digital therapeutic virtual reality tool to address social isolation and improve geriatric care (COVID-19)

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是一种通过促进共同存在来支持社会情感健康的技术，共同存在被定义为一种在虚拟环境中的感觉，类似于人与人之间的物理互动。孤独症可能会使人衰弱，并对65岁及以上的患者产生不利影响，导致与发病率和死亡率因素（如痴呆症，心脏病，中风和抑郁症）相关的估计70亿美元的医疗保险费用。最近的COVID-19疫情凸显了数字化工具在促进与身心健康相关的联系方面的挑战和机遇。拟议的虚拟现实解决方案和新兴的数字治疗领域可以解决医院、辅助生活护理设施和精神卫生设施面临的重大挑战，改善临床结果。 该项目的研究结果预计将影响其他人际互动环境，例如培训、教育等。该小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目推进数字治疗工具的翻译，以促进共存。 该项目比较了真实的和虚拟环境中成对个体之间的生理和心理标记，以寻找共同存在的重要标记。目标包括开发一个自定义的虚拟现实应用程序和收集定量数据对个人在三个社会背景下进行交互。拟议的研究将评估虚拟现实促进共存的程度，并将重点放在特定的算法和设计选择上，作为共存的重要驱动因素。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is a technology to support social-emotional health by fostering co-presence, defined as a sense of being together in a virtual environment analogous to person-to-person physical interaction. Loneliness can be debilitating and have detrimental impact on patients aged 65 and over, causing an estimated $7 billion in Medicare costs associated with the effects of morbidity and mortality factors, such as dementia, heart disease, stroke, and depression. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted both the challenges and opportunities of digital tools in fostering connections associated with mental and physical health. The proposed virtual reality solution and the emerging digital therapeutics sector can address significant challenges faced by hospitals, assisted living care facilities, and mental health facilities, improving clinical outcomes. The findings of this project are expected to impact other human interaction contexts, such as training, education, and others.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project advances translation of digital therapeutic tools to foster co-presence. The project compares physiological and psychological markers between pairs of individuals in both real and virtual contexts in search of significant markers for co-presence. Objectives include development of a custom virtual reality application and collection of quantitative data on pairs of individuals interacting in three social contexts. Proposed research will evaluate the degree to which virtual reality fosters co-presence and focus on specific algorithms and design choices as significant drivers of co-presence.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.