By Brita Belli
May 7, 2021
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Teens wearing virtual reality headsets in the Play4REAL Lab.
For years, Dr. Asher Marks, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine and director of the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Program at Yale New Haven Hospital, has urged his young patients to attend support groups. Meeting with other patients is well known to improve survival chances and alleviate depression.
But often he’d find that the in-person therapy sessions hosted by AYA were empty.
So, in 2019, Marks tried another approach: a virtual reality support group. Patients were given headsets and asked to join an immersive chat room with other patients and a social worker, during which they were asked to discuss their condition in a comfortable setting.
By Brita Belli
May 7, 2021
Share this with FacebookShare this with TwitterShare this with LinkedInShare this with EmailPrint this
Teens wearing virtual reality headsets in the Play4REAL Lab.
For years, Dr. Asher Marks, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine and director of the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Program at Yale New Haven Hospital, has urged his young patients to attend support groups. Meeting with other patients is well known to improve survival chances and alleviate depression.
But often he’d find that the in-person therapy sessions hosted by AYA were empty.
So, in 2019, Marks tried another approach: a virtual reality support group. Patients were given headsets and asked to join an immersive chat room with other patients and a social worker, during which they were asked to discuss their condition in a comfortable setting.