Virtual Reality takes Boone Health workers from hospital to the beach, improves stress levels

By Lauren Tronstad, Columbia Daily Tribune

One moment, Michele Sprague is tending to the non-stop demands of her job as a nurse manager at Boone Health.

The next, she's on a beach in New Zealand.

It's part of a project with Columbia-based company Healium to assess the impact of mind-powered virtual reality and neurofeedback to improve mood and reduce stress among front-line health care workers.

"It is pretty incredible," Sprague said. "You absolutely feel like you're walking on the beach."

One hundred Boone Health employees were subjects in a study about the project published in Frontiers in Virtual Reality Medicine.

The employees, who participated voluntarily, were fitted with a brain-sensing head strap and virtual reality goggles to record their brain patterns associated with stress. They were then placed inside an environment through virtual reality that responds to the user's biometric information, modifying the scene if the brain becomes stressed.

Healium's patented technology tailors stress-relieving immersive media content specific to the wearer based on their brain patterns measured by electroencephalogram, a test or record of brain activity.

Participants were virtually sent to a beach in New Zealand for just over four minutes, said Healium CEO Sarah Hill. A narrated, guided meditation led them through breathing exercises with focus on different parts of the body.

After the short session, employees were recorded as having improved moods, increased feelings of happiness and calm, and reduced tension.

"We need to find drugless, non-harmful coping mechanisms," Hill said of the importance of the technology. "It is a powerful tool to be able to see your brain patterns and learn to self-regulate. It's all just a reminder that our thoughts do have power to control things not only in the virtual world, but in the real world as well."

When immersed in the "virtual vacations," participants monitor their own brain activity with the use of a firefly that changes in size depending on the activity, she said.

The firefly goes toward the top of the screen and grows larger when the participant is showing signs of decreased stress.

When the firefly gets smaller and drops to the bottom, the screen is tinted red, signaling an increase in stress. It acts as a gentle reminder for the participant to shift focus back to their breathing and the scene.

Before each session for the study, participants filled out a survey of their mood and were asked to fill out the same survey at the conclusion of the experience. Participants, a majority of whom are nurses, reported back feeling much calmer, describing the experience as "lovely" and "truly relaxing," Hill said.

There were noticeable changes in staff members after using the device, including a decrease in anger, depression and overall stress, Sprague said.

The virtual reality kits were donated to Boone Health for workers to continue to utilize.

Now, they are free to use any of 35 experiences, which include waterfalls, forests, space and up in the clouds, with sessions of up to 20 minutes.

The headsets are rotated each week between wards in the hospital for employees to utilize, Sprague said.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Boone Health workers use virtual reality to improve stress levels

More here:

https://www.tryhealium.com/science/virtual-reality-combined-with-neurofeedback-more-effective-for-boosting-mood-than-audio-only-meditation/

CES names Healium 2022 Innovation Award Honoree

Healium announced the Consumer Technology Association, the creators of the world’s largest technology show on the planet, has named Healium a CES® 2022 Innovation Awards Honoree for its patented technology that connects biometric data from consumer wearables to VR and AR apps. This year’s CES Innovation Awards program received a record-high number of more than 1800 submissions. The announcement was made ahead of CES 2022, the world’s most influential technology event, happening Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas, NV, and digitally.

The CES Innovation Awards program, owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, is an annual competition honoring outstanding design and engineering in 27 consumer technology product categories. An elite panel of industry expert judges, including members of the media, designers, engineers, and more, reviewed submissions based on innovation, engineering and functionality, aesthetics, and design.

Healium’s products are used worldwide with the US military, in schools, with elite athletes in the NFL and MLB, and wellness practitioners to equip high performers with brain and heart rate training they need to excel. Healium teaches users to learn to self-regulate so they can focus faster, stress less, and perform better.

“Healium is the first immersive media channel for hardware-agnostic wearables,” said Sarah Hill, Healium’s CEO who developed the technology to ease her own anxiety as a former TV news reporter. “Think of Healium like a video game you play with your smartwatch or EEG headband. Mental fitness is an important way to build resilience with drugless, non-harmful coping mechanisms. We’re delighted CES has recognized our technology that is an important bridge between biometric data and XR content.”

You can try Healium for yourself at CES in Vegas at its booth near the entrance to the North Hall’s health pavilion. The CES 2022 Innovation Awards honorees, including product descriptions and photos, can be found at CES.tech/innovation.

Owned and produced by CTA, CES 2022, the global stage for innovation, will convene the tech industry in person and digitally, giving global audiences access to major brands and startups, as well as the world’s most influential leaders and industry advocates. Visit CES.tech for all CES 2022 updates, including health protocols and registration.

More info https://www.tryhealium.com



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Healium is a patented technology and product that allows users to learn to self-regulate their focus and calm by giving them the ability to see their EEG brain patterns or heart rate in near-real-time. In five peer-reviewed journals, Healium has been shown to significantly reduce anxiety and improve mood in as little as four minutes.

T-Mobile Partners with Healium to Help Honor Veterans

T-mobile recently partnered with Healium, a virtual human performance channel, to provide free virtual "flights" to terminally ill or aging Veterans unable to physically travel to see their memorials in Washington, DC.

It’s Military Appreciation Month, and we honor those who have served our country. T-Mobile today announced it is teaming up with Healium to bring a virtual Honor Flight experience to veterans living in small towns across the country, transporting them with the power of Virtual Reality (VR) and 5G to visit the Washington D.C. war memorials from the comfort of their own homes.

There’s no need to travel. T-Mobile and Healium are equipping Honor Flight Network volunteers with VR headsets and Inseego 5G MiFi M2000 hotspots, so our country’s veterans can virtually experience the sights and sounds of the memorials dedicated to them. With T-Mobile Extended Range 5G covering 1.6 million square miles, this toolkit enables volunteers to travel to remote locations, meet with veterans in their homes and run a high-bandwidth VR experience using the T-Mobile 5G network.

From the comfort of their living rooms, veterans are virtually transported to Washington D.C. — just as if they were there in person — where they can tour the war memorials that commemorate their service and honor their fallen comrades. In the virtual tours, veterans can hear the sound of the Rainbow Pool, watch the Changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetery, and visit the World War II Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Women in Military Service For America Memorial. There’s even a virtual tour of the USS Nimitz in the Pacific Ocean.

“We are losing our World War II Veterans at a rate of hundreds a day, and sadly many may not live long enough to be able to see their memorials in person,” said Sarah Hill, CEO, Healium. “This is a such a powerful application that can help us reach Veterans, including those living in small towns and remote locations. While nothing is as good as a real, in-person Honor Flight trip, this is a beautiful way to take Veterans there if they’re not able to travel.”

Healium is as an early leader in Mixed Reality solutions designed to improve mental fitness. Since 2015, it has supported the volunteer efforts of Central Missouri Honor Flight, a non-profit organization dedicated to honoring those who served and sacrificed for our country. The Honor Flight Network is a national network of independent Hubs, each dedicated to transporting U.S. military veterans to see the Washington, D.C. war memorials at no cost to the veterans.

“5G is the enabler for VR applications that can transport us to new places, giving us immersive experiences that better connect us to our world,” said John Saw, EVP of Advanced & Emerging Technologies at T-Mobile. “We are delighted to team up with Healium and Honor Flight Network to help give back to those who have served our country. With 5GForAll we can bring transformative services such as this to everyone, including those living in rural America.”

Building #5GForAll
T-Mobile is America’s 5G leader with the largest, fastest and most reliable 5G network. T-Mobile’s Extended Range 5G covers 295 million people across 1.6 million square miles. That’s 4x more geographic coverage than Verizon and 2x more than AT&T. And with Sprint now part of T-Mobile, the Un-carrier is widening its lead, lighting up Ultra Capacity 5G across the country, bringing fast 5G speeds to more places than anyone else. Ultra Capacity 5G can deliver speeds around 300 Mbps with peaks of 1 Gbps, and now covers 140 million people.

Incredible and innovative 5G products and services are quickly being built, and they require a 5G network with capacity and broad reach, one that’s being built to support virtually all types of use cases and provide unprecedented reach. It’s called #5GForAll and only T-Mobile can build it. With its supercharged 5G network as the foundation, T-Mobile is fueling 5G innovation and building the 5G ecosystem with a number of initiatives. The Un-carrier collaborates with universities and standards bodies to support 5G research and development. In addition to running the award-winning T-Mobile Accelerator, it operates the T-Mobile Ventures investment fund and is a co-founder of the 5G Open Innovation Lab. From employee benefits and military discounts, to its pledge to hire 10,000 Veterans and military spouses by 2023, T-Mobile is honored to serve those who serve our country. Find out more on our website. And, follow T-Mobile’s Official Twitter Newsroom @TMobileNews to stay up to date with the latest company news.

Healium Lands Air Force Contract for Virtual Stress Resilience Products

Healium’s media therapeutic to help service members self-manage anxiety, focus, and sleep

The US Air Force recently announced it awarded Healium an SBIR Phase I contract to explore deploying Healium’s mental fitness products to service members at home and in the field.  

The number of deaths by suicide among military service members increased in the fourth quarter of 2020 according to the Defense Department’s latest quarterly report. According to the VA, about 20 Veterans, active duty, guardsmen, and reservists die by suicide each day. 

Healium is a technology and a product that produces a “digital drug” that allows the user to learn to self-regulate their focus and calm by giving them the ability to see their EEG brain patterns in near-real-time. It’s a portable solution that uses virtual and augmented reality to immerse the user into beautiful, nature-based escapes.

In four peer-reviewed journals, Healium has been shown to significantly reduce anxiety and improve mood in as little as four minutes. 

“This is the stress Olympics and not everyone has trained for it,” said Sarah Hill, Healium’s CEO who developed the product to ease her own anxiety as a former TV news reporter. “How are you supposed to learn to control your focus and calm if you can’t SEE them? These experiences are designed to interrupt the stress response and allow the user to learn to self-regulate.”

In addition to being under contract with the Department of Defense, Healium announced a continuing partnership with The Outpost, a Virginia advisory and technology accelerator firm helping advance next-generation technology companies within both the commercial and national security verticals.

“From pre-deployment to post-deployment, airmen and soldiers are being asked to manage so many difficult and stressful tasks these days,“ said Dave Harden, The Outpost’s CEO.  With this comes anxiety, loneliness, depression, and, in the worse situations, suicide. Healium brings a world-class tool and experience that can help to not only teach ourselves to self-regulate ACTUAL brain waves but start to make the synaptic growth required to combat stress and human performance–all with a spa-like virtual experience.”

In addition to military and Veterans groups, Healium is used worldwide by frontline workers, athletes, and schools to reduce stress and improve human performance. Get Healium for your enterprise today.