World premiere, Virtual Reality takes part in Pulmonary Transplantation procedure

February 24, 2020

For the first time in the world, a patient on the lung transplant list will be able to benefit from therapeutic virtual reality sessions to prevent post-operative psychological trauma, thanks to a groundbreaking partnership between C2Care and AP-HM (Public Assistance – Hospitals of Marseille).

1st in France : virtual reality at the service of patients' health

C2Care, a Toulon-based startup created in 2015, is positioned in the virtual reality therapy segment. The software offered by the startup is now used by 600 health professionals.
Dr. Benjamin COIFFARD, pulmonologist at the AP-HM and Dr. François MALTESE, psychologist at the AP-HM, have teamed up with C2Care for a new preventive technique whose objective is to prevent the occurrence of psychological disorders frequently encountered, in the short and medium term, after transplantation.

"Hyper-immersion" to avoid psychological trauma

This preventive method is intended for patients who receive a lung transplant. Following surgery, the awakening is excessively violent in the aggressive environment of the intensive care unit. These consequences can lead to post-operative complications and psychological trauma, including anxiety and depression. C2Care, in collaboration with the AP-HM, proposes to mitigate these medical and psychological risks thanks to virtual reality sessions prior to the operation, called "habituation therapy".

"For patients, the risk of psychological pathology is a posteriori. We thus use habituation therapy in order to expose them in a progressive and immersive way to the environment with which the patient will be confronted". Doctor MALTESE.

What's new : the C2Care 3D scanner

This new technology will allow scanning (360° digital images) an environment, in this case a resuscitation box, and thus reproduce it identically. The 3D scanner reconstitutes in the smallest details, the box such as the patient will see it at his awakening after transplantation. These images will then be displayed in a virtual reality headset. These sessions (3 sessions of 45 minutes) will allow the patient, accompanied by a psychologist, to apprehend the environment of the intensive care unit as he will discover it upon his awakening, in a real and immersive way in order to limit the potentially anxiety-provoking consequences of the stay in the intensive care unit.

"We hope to achieve a 30% reduction in patient anxiety in the post-operative situation" Doctor COIFFARD

An arrival on the market in early 2020

Currently in development, this innovation will move into a test phase in the coming months. C2Care hopes to put it into practice before the end of 2019. The AP-HM performs about 50 lung transplants per year and 25 patients will be randomly selected to receive a preventive therapy using virtual reality. In the long term, C2Care could provide this unique solution to 400 lung transplant patients in France and 8,000 worldwide. This preventive therapy could also be adapted to all types of medical and surgical procedures.
This scientific project is financially supported by the research department of the AP-HM and by the association Maryse Pour la Vie, with the support of the Intensive Care and Resuscitation Service of Pr. PAPAZIAN, the Pneumology Department of Rare Respiratory Diseases, Cystic Fibrosis, of Pr. M. REYNAUD-GAUBERT, and the Thoracic Surgery and Esophageal Diseases Department of Pr. P. THOMAS.