Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Can Virtual Reality Help Pain Or Depression? Some Hospitals Experiment With New Tech
It鈥檚 still a new and experimental approach, but proponents of virtual reality say that it can be an effective treatment for everything from intense pain to Alzheimer鈥檚 disease to arachnophobia to depression. And as Facebook Inc., Sony Corp., HTC Corp. and others race to build a dominant VR set, the price of hardware has fallen, making the equipment a more affordable option for hospitals looking for alternatives for pain relief. The idea is that the worst pain can be alleviated by manipulating the way the human mind works: the more you focus on pain, the worse it feels. (King and Chen, 8/29)
But IBM鈥檚 shift from computer hardware to software and services has taken the New York company deep into the world of doctors, hospitals, and drug companies. ...聽IBM is making a big bet on health care, and it鈥檚 doing it here in the technology and life sciences hub of Massachusetts. Since IBM Watson Health was launched in 2015, the company has made four acquisitions worth about $4 billion and forged numerous partnerships with major hospitals, drug makers, and other companies. (McCluskey, 8/30)
The Mercy Virtual Care Program is cutting health care costs by getting hundreds of senior citizens to use iPads as an alternative to doctors' visits. (Hodge, Sevilla and Kress, 8/29)
