Virtual Health Service: How VR Is Helping Patients Face Their Fears

A tree is growing in the middle of a shopping mall.

- Adam Smith

Apples, red and ripe, hang on its branches. Tentatively, you reach out and take one, before dropping it in a basket sitting by your feet. Or rather, where your feet would be: As you look down, your stomach wrenches as your brain tries to comprehend how you can be so high up, standing on a tiny platform, picking fruit from a tree that’s hovering in the air.

That’s what you would experience if you picked up a virtual reality (VR) headset and stepped into Fear of Heights, a VR treatment being developed by Oxford VR, a company supported by the University of Oxford that works with the UK’s National Health Service to treat acrophobia.

The idea is to provide patients with a greater degree of personalization than they could practically get in reality. The experience starts from just a small height, perhaps a few inches off the ground. Participants step onto the platform and pick apples. As they grow more comfortable, the height can go up to multiple stories.

The virtual world built by Oxford VR is heavily stylized; no patient would mistake it for a real-world experience. But, in some ways, that works in its favor.

“People are a lot more willing to engage going next to a virtual edge than a real one,” says Sam Gage, head of VR Development for Oxford VR, because it’s not “real real.” The patients know on a conscious level that they aren’t really standing on the edge of a building, for example, but their brains still react to the perceived height in the same way—and that’s where treatment can begin.

The NHS, meanwhile, is currently dealing with financial constraints, so treatment inside a VR headset is much more affordable than constructing or renting a 10-story shopping center for acrophobics. A good VR-compatible PC and headset are also more portable and can be taken to those who struggle with social anxiety or psychosis.