- [Narrator] Amidst the opioid epidemic healthcare providers
in Oregon are searching for alternatives to pain pills.
- [Nurse] Remember playing with this?
- Yeah. - Yeah, okay.
- [Narrator] This is Moira Reeves.
She's six and has second degree burns throughout her body.
- Okay, we're gonna put on the headphones too
just so we got everything taken care of.
Can you see okay?
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] Changing this dressing
is excruciating for Moira.
- [Nurse] Good job.
(Moira exclaims)
- [Narrator] But staff at Legacy Oregon Burn Center
have an effective non-opioid tool they can use for her pain.
It's a technology that's supposed to safely alter
Moira's perception of her pain signals.
- We can think of those as being
different instruments in an orchestra.
- Stop, stop. - No, hang on.
- [Nora] If a person is experiencing
a greater sense of threat in relationship
to something potentially harmful,
then the volume of that orchestra is going to go up.
If we can begin to help those different brain centers
begin to fire for other reasons
around pleasurable activities, then we can essentially
hijack those brain functions.
- [Narrator] That's right, hijack the brain.
Using virtual reality devices to immerse patients
in computer-generated worlds.
Worlds, theoretically, where the pain stops.
- That's super fun, all right.
- Bear Blast, super fun!
- [Narrator] Other health providers in the Portland area
are getting into the VR game.
Doctors at Providence Health and Services want to see
how VR can be used to help patients after surgery.
Linda Boyles was one of those patients.
- It was like being cut in two.
Close to childbirth.
That's how intense the pain was.
- [Narrator] Past studies show that being immersed
inside a computer-generated environment,
like this one made by Firsthand Technology,
drains the brain's neural resources
leaving less attention available to process pain signals.
Providence ran a test with 29 cancer patients
all recovering from painful abdominal surgeries.
- We were interested in trying it out in inpatient
because people don't have a lot to engage their attention
besides their pain experience
when they're sitting in a hospital bed.
- [Narrator] Inside these VR worlds patients experience
calming, often nature-based environments.
This one has a river, a forest
and a lot of otters.
- So, I wasn't sure about how it was going to be.
As I am playing this game, I'm really getting into this game
and I forgot about my pain.
And it was like 30 minutes of being pain free.
(happy music)
- [Narrator] It's taken over 50 years for VR
to become usable in medical settings.
This guy has some insight into that.
- In the 60s virtual reality was
close to an entire warehouse.
It was a massive room of computing power required
to create an experience.
In the 90s, it was more like a small server room.
Today, it can be run off a laptop.
- [Narrator] VR devices used to cost upwards of $60,000.
Now, you can buy VR headsets for less than $10.
- If you can give someone the option
to spend an hour in virtual reality
as opposed to popping some pain pills
to help alleviate their stress
that's an incredibly supportive thing
to someone's lifestyle.
- [Narrator] Early results from Providence's VR trial
show up to a 30% drop in pain.
Doctors were also able to reduce opioid dosing by 20%.
Now, Providence wants to test VR in their rehab clinics.
- Yeah, we're not going the easy route with this one.
- [Patient] I didn't know it was even possible.
- This could be a treatment for pain.
This could be a treatment for opioid reduction,
but without the payers saying
"this is worth X amount of dollars
"per hour of the doctor's time or whoever's time"
then it's not going to get widely integrated
into the medical community.
- Help him on there but first,
we always want to start the application first
before we put it on the patient.
- Okay.
- [Narrator] Firsthand Technology was
at Providence's rehab clinic in Gresham
to show physical therapists how to use their VR setup.
- [Man] Close your fingers.
(dreamy music)
- [Physical therapist] Wow.
- It is not the magic bullet.
However, in some cases it might be particularly helpful
to get an extra boost of an incredibly absorbing
and immersive experience.
We were able to bring a different world
right into the hospital room.
- [Narrator] How do we let go of pain?
In the battle against our own bodies
doctors of the future might just recommend
digital lanterns, otters and a dose of wonder.
(dreamy music)