New Technologies and Therapy: TIMELAPSE’s Experience for Patients’ Wellbeing
On the afternoon of Saturday, 29 November, the TIMELAPSE team will present the Virtual Reality application Track of Time, the result of eighteen months of theoretical research, participatory design, and field testing in the context of chemotherapy care provided by the Phase 1 Research Center of San Gerardo Hospital, in Monza.
The event will begin with an overview of the project’s key phases and the first public presentation of the VR experience, which attendees will be able to try firsthand. It will then continue with a roundtable discussion aimed at bringing together healthcare professionals, patients, and stakeholders from the fields of medicine and technology to explore, from multiple perspectives, how new technologies can be leveraged to concretely improve patient wellbeing.
Is it possible to leverage some of today’s most innovative technologies, such as Virtual Reality, to enhance the wellbeing of people undergoing treatment?
In collaboration with
Under the patronage of:
PROGRAMME
From h. 14:00 Welcome and VR Demo (by reservation at this link)
h. 15:00 – 16:00 Presentation of the TIMELAPSE project and launch of the VR application Track of Time
h. 16:00 – 16:30 VR Demo (by reservation at this link)
h. 16:30 – 18:00 Roundtable
Speakers:
- Serena Capici (Oncologist at the Phase 1 Research Center, San Gerardo Hospital, Monza)
- Cristina Tagliabue (Nursing Coordinator, Phase 1 Research Center, San Gerardo Hospital, Monza)
- Anna Maria Mancuso (President, Salutedonna Onlus)
- Oscar Mayora (Head of Digital Health Research, Bruno Kessler Foundation)
- Lucrezia Rovati (Vice President, Fondazione Luigi Rovati)
Moderator: Cinzia Testa (Medical-scientific Journalist)
Following the event: free visit to the Luigi Rovati Foundation Museum and networking opportunity
FOR FURTHER INSIGHT
Virtual Reality is often used in clinical and healthcare settings: as a tool for training and education for doctors and healthcare professionals; as support for motor and cognitive rehabilitation; and as a form of distraction for those undergoing painful or long-lasting treatments. In particular, it has been observed that Virtual Reality can provide benefits in the context of infusion therapies, which typically require patients to spend extended periods of time in highly medicalized environments, potentially negatively affecting the psychological well-being of people undergoing treatment, as well as their adherence to the prescribed therapy.
The use of virtual reality in the context of long-duration infusion therapies can help ease the perceived duration of treatment, offering a high-quality form of entertainment as a distraction.
At present, however, most VR applications designed for infusion therapies are developed solely by researchers and developers, and are presented to patients only once they are ready for use. This approach completely excludes end users from the design of a tool intended to enhance their wellbeing.
To overcome this limitation, the TIMELAPSE project, coordinated by the University of Milan, set out to develop and test a Virtual Reality application for chemotherapy using a participatory design methodology. From the earliest stages, this approach involved a substantial group of breast cancer patients hosted at the Phase 1 Research Center of San Gerardo Hospital in Monza.
The insight behind TIMELAPSE, supported by the development team of the specialized company Khora, is to focus on the experience of time during chemotherapy: while the actual duration of this treatment cannot yet be objectively shortened, the proposed solution is to use virtual reality to foster a subjective acceleration of time. This is achieved through the direct and ongoing involvement of breast cancer patients and their invaluable perspective.