Accenture, a global consulting and technology services company, has announced an investment in BehaVR, a pioneer in virtual reality (VR) wellness and therapeutic experiences.
The funds will help BehaVR in creating innovative metaverse therapies for serious mental illnesses, such as anxiety, stress, and fear, among others.
Based on the objective, VR is able to create a multisensory simulation that the brain perceives as real and can effectively affect the brain’s threat processing centers to calm or arouse emotional and physiological responses.
The process would involve using a VR headset to take patients out of their usual world and place them in a new one, the metaverse, and expose them to virtual experiences that will help them work on areas in which they feel stressed, anxious, or scared.
Furthermore, BehaVR plans to use the funds to develop its platform so that it can create dynamic experiences that can be regulated in real time using biometrics, protocols, and machine learning.
“Providing people with the flexibility to decide when, where, and how they want to receive mental health care will help to improve access, experience, and outcomes,” said Rich Birhanzel, senior managing director and Health practice global lead at Accenture. “BehaVR offers people choice and clinicians options to expand how they care for patients.”
The digital therapeutics industry is predicted to exceed $13 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 20.5%, and healthcare experts believe the metaverse will have a positive impact on the future of care.
According to Accenture’s new report, Digital Health Technology Vision 2022, personalization will further humanize healthcare and make it more effective by aligning the right technology, operating model, data, and culture to provide more efficient and empathic care.
