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Sparky Thoughts | The medical benefits of virtual animals | by ZoominTV

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Often for an individual with a mental or physical disability, exercise is a challenging topic. But, swimming is not only fun and rewarding, but a great way to keep fit and healthy despite challenges you would normally find with outdoor exercise, or in a gym environment. The wonderful thing about swimming is that in many cases, mobility issues as a result of a disability are often hugely reduced, sometimes almost completely eradicated. The increased freedom of movement is a fantastic experience for anyone who struggles with mobility on solid ground.

Zwemclub Plons is a swimming pool in Brabant (the Netherlands) for people with a disability. The Dolphin Swim Club went for a visit. After we spent a happy, splashy evening in the pool with the swimmers and volunteers of Zwemclub Plons, the team of ZoominTV made this wonderful report: The medical benefits of virtual animals.
Language: Dutch | Subtitles: English

VR Therapy with wild dolphins — EenVandaag

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We spent a wonderful day with the EenVandaag crew and the team of handicapped expertise centre ‘s Heeren Loo. EenVandaag is a Dutch current affairs program covering the latest news and background stories from the Netherlands and abroad. ‘s Heerenloo is researching the effect of VR therapy. In 82% of the cases the symptoms improved.

We spent most of our time in the pool in Apeldoorn, where Dion tested our new Wild Dolphin UnderwaterVR. We were all touched by his reaction, and joyful personality.

Language: Dutch | Subtitles: English

Think Outside the Body – Sarah’s Experience

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What a surprise! We discovered that our wild dolphin friends have found their way to meet Sarah. By chance, we came across her beautiful story on the internet. We are all touched by her encounter.

MND

Flix Films, a company based in the UK, met Sarah through the MNDassociation. Sarah has a type of MND causing minimal body movement. She communicates via Tobii Eye Gaze technology and has used her condition to inspire and pioneer technology benefitting others with limited movement. Sarah was asked if there were any experiences she wished she’d had. Her reply? ‘I’ve always wanted to swim with dolphins’.

Virtual dolphins for real pain relief — Leeuwarder Courant

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The Dolphin Swim Club in the Leeuwarder CourantA double page feature in the Leeuwarder Courant! The Leeuwarder Courant is the oldest daily newspaper in the Netherlands. “This is the unlikely story of an artist and her husband. Together, this couple from Leeuwarden works on a project where virtual wild dolphins help patients deal with pain and anxiety. The Dolphin Swim Club is well on its way to positively touch the lives of many Europeans and Americans.”
Language: Dutch

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Enlisting Virtual Reality to Ease Real Pain — The Wall Street Journal

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The Wall Street JournalToday was a big day for the Dolphin Swim Club because we made it to one of the most influential and wide-read magazines worldwide. We are delighted to share this article, published in The Wall Street Journal, on the exciting possibilities of Virtual Reality within healthcare. The article mentioned our Virtual Reality experience of swimming with wild dolphins. Readers were offered a short VR-demo as well as a video of a young patient experiencing dolphin magic to help ease the pain. We are so proud that the readers of The Wall Street Journal had the opportunity to meet our wild dolphins!

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Swimming with dolphins in hospital – NRC

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Een man met virtual reality bril kijkt omhoog op een open pleinThese days, Virtual Reality is used more and more for medical purposes. An example of one of these applications is to relieve pain. Due to the immersive power of virtual reality, patients experience less pain. This may lead to less use of medication and thus improve patient well-being. And of course, a drug-free medicine has no environmental impact! Which is great news for our wild dolphin friends. We are excited that Dutch newspaper NRC once again mentioned us in this article about the use of VR in the medical world.

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Project Brave Heart

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Lauren Schneider, clinical assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, is exploring the impact of VR therapy in a pilot study called Project Brave Heart. The study aims to see if pediatric cardiology patients who participate in a pre-procedure virtual reality (VR) experience have less anxiety and stress than patients who don’t participate. The study includes sending a VR headset home with patients who have a scheduled cardiac catheterization procedure so they can learn about the procedure and practice relaxation techniques at home. Although these catheterizations are outpatient procedures, catheterization patients must undergo general anaesthesia. Doctors find the experience can cause stress and anxiety for patients, especially if they’re young.

Although VR technology is expanding into medical settings, research into its health care benefits is in the early stages, and it’s believed that no one has studied its impact on children with congenital heart diseases. We are happy to see this research has been shared by multiple platforms. The full articles can be seen on the links below.

Stanford Children's Health      Business Wire      Virtual Reality Magazine

More than a game – NRC

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Man staat op de boeg van een schip en kijkt in zijn virtual reality brilRecently, the psychiatric patients admitted to the University Medical Hospital in Groningen (UMCG), can swim with “wild” dolphins. The footage of the Dolphin Swim Club is used in their treatment of depression, psychosis and anxiety disorders. Psychiatrist Wim Veling: ‘Patients with psychological problems often have difficulties to relax. Stress enhances a lot of these psychological problems. This VR experience helps to reduce stress by immersing patients in a serene underwater environment surrounded by dolphins.’
Language: Dutch

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Whale tale

Californian Diary

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So we were in Los Angeles, invited by professor Skip Rizzo, to present the Dolphin Swim Club at the Internation Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies (ICDVRat). What an amazing gathering of Virtual Reality pioneers, medical scientists and artists, all dedicated to curing people with the aid of science and technology. Someone suggested to compare the often asked question ‘Does Virtual Reality work for patients in healthcare?’ with this question ‘Does a syringe help?’ The answer was that it really depends on what you put in it. Content is queen. For an artist, this is of course great inspiration!

Dana Point

Since we were already in the area, we decided to spend some time on the Pacific Ocean. We wanted to see if we could make new cetacean friends in the rich coastal waters. In the harbour town Dana Point, we went out with a whale-watching catamaran where we had the great honour to meet the magnificent Blue Whale for the first time. The greatest creature that has ever lived on our planet! But there was so much more to see. We spotted some Californian Sea Lions, Mola-Mola fish, Short-beaked Common Dolphins, Long-beaked Common Dolphins, Coastal Bottlenose Dolphins, Sea-otters, Pelicans, Elephant Seals, Humming Birds, Rizzo’s Dolphins (we joked that this was in honour of our host Skip Rizzo), Porpoises and Humpback whales. What a great day!

Saving Whales

Captain Dave, the owner of the whale-watching operation, introduced us to his friend Barry Curtis. Both are members of a whale rescue team trying to set free sea life entangled in fishing nets. Barry invited us to join him on his boat the next morning. The mission was to try and find an entangled humpback whale, spotted the day before. On a beautiful sunny, windless September morning, we set out from Dana Point to see if we could find the humpback in trouble. The plan was to ‘babysit’ and keep score of its position until further rescue efforts could arrive. Although the conditions were perfect, we never found the whale…

Barry’s companion is a very special dog, his name is Otter (the dolphin dog). He is, if possible, even more passionate about dolphins than we are. So when we couldn’t find the whale, at some point Otter became restless. And yes, there they were! Lots and lots of Short-beaked Common Dolphins all around in a ‘stampede’. Yes Barry, it’s a wonderful world indeed.

The only thing weighing down this magical day was the thought of the poor humpback soul out there in trouble somewhere. Until a few days later when the news arrived that the whale managed to free itself!! A very happy ending indeed. So to all our new friends from California, whether Cetacean, Canine or Human, wishing you safe travels and free passage to wherever your dreams may lead you.

UMCG starts virtual swimming with dolphins — Omrop Fryslân

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A pod of dolphinsSwimming with wild dolphins in Virtual Reality as a therapy for patients suffering from, for example, autism or depression. The idea comes from the artist Marijke Sjollema, from Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. She set off to film wild dolphins in Egypt in 2015. The University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG) embraced the project immediately. The hospital starts with a study of the effects of this new drug free medicine.
Language: Frisian & Dutch

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