TheraVR – A Closed-Loop MR Interface offering highly personalised mental health solutions

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The NHS Long-Term Plan is to expand access to psychological therapy to 1.9M patients/year by 2024\. But this figure represents only ~25% of people struggling with life-debilitating anxiety. The challenge is exacerbated by the lack of the NHS mental health budget. Therefore, there is a need for a scalable, cost-effective anxiety management platform that observes every patient's right to digital care in their own homes while could enhance NHS support for people in care homes.Scientific literature suggests Virtual Reality (VR) is the most efficient digital solution to manage anxiety. VR creates the feeling of 'being in an imaginary world'. Our preliminary research findings suggest a greater feel of immersion in the imaginary world translates to a more efficient calming impact. According to the personality trait theory, the sense of immersion is an individualised perception and should be 'right' for each user.Our innovation is Closed-loop Virtual Reality (TheraVR) where real-time monitoring of user's sensory data allows getting it 'right' for each user and enables 'complete' immersion. In 2021, we collaborated with i-teams (University of Cambridge) and surveyed 30 patients and 10 healthcare providers on this concept where 92% endorsed our innovation.The aim of this project is conducting a crossover randomised trial to assess how calmer user with the 'right VR experience' would be compared to 'one size fit all' VR.The trial will start with recording the baseline calmness index of consented participants. The calmness index is extracted from a multi-dimensional data including brain and heart waves which have established correlation with anxiety. Then we will induce anxiety using VR content (reptiles in the dark). The next stage is monitoring the calmness index of participants while experiencing two VR contents (A: Filmed seaside in Cornwell and B: Dynamic computer-generated). Each experience will last for 5 minutes.Each participant acts as their own control so the variation between participants is eliminated. All participants will experience both calming contents, but a different order. Participants will be randomised to one of the 2 sequences (AB or BA). There is a washout period of 60 min where participants receive no intervention to let the effects of the previous VR experience diminish.