Virtual Reality Stroke Rehab

It seems like there are new technologies coming out every day, so much so it can be hard to keep up.

How do we introduce these exciting new technologies into care?

How do our staff adapt them into their practice?

Are our patients better off?

Those are some of the questions Holy Family Hospital’s (HFH) Occupational Therapy department is trying to answer. In 2018, they were invited to participate in a nine-month research project on the integration of Virtual Reality (VR) into stroke rehabilitation by the University of Ottawa Bruyere Research Institute, sponsored by the Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery and a personal donation from Tony and Elizabeth Graham.

The HFH team was given a VR program to integrate into their care. It has new, fun and engaging games and activities for our rehabilitation patients who have experience stroke so they can relearn and better control their movements.