Joining forces with the Department of Research Engineering
Do you need technical support for your research? Maybe the Department of Research Engineering can help you!
Ingrid Kremer and Silvia Evers (RL Creating Value-Based Healthcare) joined forces with the Department of Research Engineering to develop a VR application that allows family and friends to experience how a disease such as multiple sclerosis (MS) affects daily life.
Virtual reality offers the unique possibility to put yourself in someone else's shoes, as it were, and to imagine how that person feels, for example when suffering from an illness. The University Fund Limburg/SWOL recognises the value of this and has awarded a grant for the further development of a VR application that allows family and friends to experience how a disease such as multiple sclerosis (MS) affects daily life. This VR application is also of added value in the training of care professionals. The grant was requested by Ingrid Kremer and Silvia Evers (Creating Value-Based Healthcare), Gabrielle Tuijthof (Department of Research Engineering, UM) and Sjef Jongen (MS4 Research Institute).
The first basic version of the VR application was developed by an ICT student from Zuyd University of Applied Sciences. In this application, a person performs several tasks in a normal daily environment (kitchen, street, shop), such as moving objects, searching for keys, and making a shopping list. While performing these tasks, more or less common MS symptoms can be simulated in different levels of severity.
Together with a new student from Zuyd ICT, the VR application will be made more realistic and the simulation of the symptoms will be further developed. After further pilot testing, this version will also be validated for realism by MS patients. Our ambition is to eventually use the VR application in education about diseases and in supporting the Shared Decision-Making process.
If you are interested in this topic or if you are doing research on VR and diseases, we would like to invite you to contact us so that we can join forces. Or perhaps you need technical support for your research, take a look at the website of the Department of Research Engineering or contact us via gabrielle.tuijthof@maastrichtuniversity.nl