Article

A multi-site exploratory study. Virtual reality (VR) is a relatively new treatment tool with emerging
evidence supporting its use in neurorehabilitation, although no information
exists about how therapists use VR clinically. This study's purpose
was to document current practice in GestureTek VR use for inpatient acquired
brain injury (ABI) rehabilitation as a benchmark for clinicians integrating the
approach into practice, and to inform future research to improve its clinical
applicability. METHODS: As part of a larger study examining barriers and
facilitators to VR use, participating therapists at two rehabilitation centres
documented descriptive data about client demographics and VR treatment programme
characteristics for 29 ABI clients on their caseloads over eight months. RESULTS:
Differences between the clinical population and published research samples were
apparent. Treatment characteristics and several outcomes of interest paralleled
those in the literature; however, novel outcome areas were identified as research
gaps. By study's end, more than half of clients' VR programmes had been
discontinued, for reasons consistent with documented barriers to VR use.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings can help bridge the knowledge-to-action gap by
informing the design of research that has high clinical relevance, and by
providing a point of reference for clinicians incorporating VR into their
practices.

Langue : ANGLAIS