"Dinner is ready!": Virtual Reality Assisted Training for Chronic Pain Rehabilitation

Gamified environments in Virtual Reality (VR) have shown promising results for acute pain and behavioral health. The potential for rehabilitation of chronic pain has yet to be explored. In this paper, we present a Virtual Reality game to improve the training of chronic pain both in the clinical and home settings. The prototype was designed in strong collaboration with therapists and patients to meet specific needs of this clinical population. With this approach, we are able to translate clinical guidelines into the VR environment to facilitate future implementation in the care path. User evaluations show that the game tasks meet the aim of simulating activities performed in clinical practice and provide indications for future improvements. The proof of concept will be finalized end-2017. We expect that VR-assisted training for chronic pain rehabilitation can provide added value in terms of motivation, engagement and facilitating rehabilitation achievements to daily life.