Hong Kong hospital uses VR tour to ease children’s fears ahead of operations

(From left) Anaethesiologist Dr Vansie Kwok, eight-year-old Aidan and operations manager Mok Yi Tan demonstrate the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital’s VR technology, designed to alleviate young patients’ pre-op anxiety.

Photo: Jelly Tse Eight-year-old Aidan was terrified at the prospect of having to undergo an operation at the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital in Kowloon Bay in 2024.

But his fears eased once he put on a virtual reality (VR) headset.

Guided by a panda character, the VR programme gave him knowledge of what to expect.

It allowed him to walk down the corridor and explore the operating theatre, pick the colours of medical staff’s gowns and choose how he wanted to be anaesthetised – down to the flavour of sleep-inducing gas.

The fun continued as a “giggle doctor”, a trained entertainer, performed magic tricks before Aidan “drove” himself to surgery in a miniature electric car of his choice. “The whole thing is fun!

There is no need to be scared of surgery at all,” he said after the experience. “When I woke up, I thought: ‘Was that all?’” Aidan, eight, shares his experience of using the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital’s VR technology ahead of his operation in 2024.

Photo: Jelly Tse As his mother recalled, Aidan was having so much fun that he did not even look back to say goodbye when entering the room in his sports car.

The innovation was developed by Hong Kong Children’s Hospital in recent years to help young patients manage their stress and anxiety before an operation.

Apart from helping them stay calm, the hospital’s aim was to reduce traumatic memories and maintain children’s trust in medical staff by making operations a positive experience.

Dr Vansie Kwok, deputy chief of service of the hospital’s department of anaesthesiology and perioperative medicine, said the VR game was designed to alleviate patients’ anxiety by addressing the uncertainty and unfamiliarity they felt before an operation. “Children are often scared, but they are unable to express clearly what they are scared of … sometimes, they are simply scared of fear, but not pain,” she explained. “Based on previous studies, we found that the fear came from the unfamiliarity surrounding the environment, what the doctors would do to their bodies and what would happen after they woke up, whether they would be in pain, among other things.” Kwok warned that if a child underwent an operation in a state of anxiety, the progress of their recovery could be affected and they might experience

原文链接: 南华早报