Skip Rizzo, director of medical virtual reality at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, said virtual reality has been used for various forms of pain management — both physically and mentally. In addition to how it’s being used at Kaplan’s hospital, the technology can distract people from painful medical procedures, provide a game-like environment during physical therapy sessions and help patients heal from military sexual trauma and PTSD.
For the latter, Rizzo’s lab uses a simulation of scenes from Iraq and Afghanistan deserts and villages, as well as stateside military bases, bars and bathrooms, where these traumas often occur, to help patients process what they went through with the help of a therapist.
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