The immersive virtual reality experience helping kids fight pain
Welcome to Little-NIRVANA, a new, integrated and interactive pain management solution for children
Millions of children endure painful medical events annually, such as vaccinations, blood sampling, minor surgery or invasive examinations – understandably, a scary prospect for children. Their fear of a potentially painful treatment can make treatment difficult and lead to anxiety before any medical intervention, even in adult life.
Pain is a vital sign that needs addressing, according to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations. Recognising the strong link between pain and fear, the Commission recommends that pain therapy be accompanied with psychological interventions, helping children feel more trusting of, and empowered by, clinicians.
The Little-NIRVANA consortium saw a gap for a more holistic, child-centred approach, offering continuous care and empowerment throughout the whole patient journey. Holistic tools, such as educational modules, active distraction games and training tools with bio feedback are vital, but haven’t been available.
“Wow. This is a great project. When can I use this?”
Paediatrician
Little-NIRVANA: a new tool to battle paediatric pain
Little-NIRVANA uses gamification technology – an app and VR – to focus on the child’s needs in the care pathway from home to hospital bed, enhancing the child’s wellbeing, and leading to an eventual healthcare cost reduction.
The app contains educational, relaxation and training modules, for children and parents at home preparing for an upcoming hospital visit, and for use in the waiting room.
Meanwhile, a multi-sensory VR game, which vibrates in line with the action on-screen and includes a scent device, acts as a distraction during medical procedures. A dashboard allows the medical health professional to see what the child is seeing and adjust the programme depending on the patient’s reactions, while monitoring their pain through AI-based pain monitor, MedaSense.
By using a mix of VR and non-VR-based modules, Little-NIRVANA aims to create tailored experiences to build up the children’s trust when visiting a healthcare professional, while helping them to handle pain.
A strong team with complementary strengths supported by EIT Health
Through their partnership with EIT Health, Little-NIRVANA can access a vast network of collaborators across Europe. These relationships have been vital in raising awareness of the tool, and gaining interest from investors. EIT Health will help accelerate Little-NIRVANA’s roll-out across Europe and provide essential support to its future projects.
“Little-NIRVANA … has the science, the team and the spirit to be a real game-changer for a precious and vulnerable patient population. And I am very honoured (and humbled) that I am given the opportunity to make this come true.”
Babs Weyn, PhD,Innovation Manager, Medical Image Research Center (MIRC), KU Leuven
Partners
CLC/InnoStars: Belgium-Netherlands
Partner classification: Education, Research
Partner type: Associate Partner
KU Leuven (together with University Hospitals Leuven) is a research-intensive, internationally oriented university that carries out excellence-driven research in health and care and is dedicated to build bridges between science, society and industry.
CLC/InnoStars: Belgium-Netherlands
Partner classification: Business
Partner type: Associate Partner
At Philips, our purpose is to improve people’s health and well-being through meaningful innovation. We aim to improve 2.5 billion lives per year by 2030, including 400 million in underserved communities.
We see healthcare as a connected whole. Helping people to live healthily and prevent disease. Giving clinicians the tools they need to make a precision diagnosis and deliver personalized treatment. Aiding the patient's recovery at home in the community. All supported by a seamless flow of data.
As a technology company, we – and our brand licensees – innovate for people with one consistent belief: there’s always a way to make life better.
Philips Electronics Nederland B.V.
Philips Electronics Nederland B.V., Boschdijk 525, 5622 Eindhoven, Netherlands
Key Activities in Corporate Innovation
Med Tech, ICT
CLC/InnoStars: Scandinavia
Partner classification: Business, Research
Partner type: Associate Partner
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden is a network of research and technology organizations. In global cooperation with academia, enterprise and society, we create value, growth and competitiveness through research excellence and innovation.
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Mäster Samuelsgatan 60, 111 21 Stockholm, Sweden
Key Activities in Corporate Innovation
Pharma, Med Tech, ICT, Consumer products, Nutrition
Key Activities in Business Creation
Technology Transfer, Business coaching, Testing & Validation
Key Activities in Education
Entrepreneurship training
CLC/InnoStars: Belgium-Netherlands
Partner classification: Hospital / University Hospital
Partner type: Linked/Affiliated Party
Maastricht University Medical Center+ is known both nationally and internationally for its focus on prevention and taking an integrated approach to health care: from prevention, promotion of good health, and basic care, to top-level clinical diagnostics and treatment. Patient safety is our top priority in all of our endeavours. Maastricht UMC+ has 715 beds and approximately 7,000 employees and 4,000 students. Maastricht UMC+ is part of The Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres.
Maastricht UMC+
Maastricht UMC+, P. Debyelaan 25, 6229 HX Maastricht, Netherlands
CLC/InnoStars: Belgium-Netherlands
Partner classification: Education, Research
Partner type: Associate Partner
At Maastricht University, innovation is our focus. Problem-based learning and research-based learning are key. We focus on multidisciplinary topics and issues that are critical to the development of society, both today and tomorrow.
Maastricht University
Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands
CLC/InnoStars: Scandinavia
Partner classification: Education, Research
Partner type: Core Partner
The University of Tartu (UT) is the oldest and largest university in Estonia and is one of the leading education institutions teaching medical and health sciences. The UT is a core partner of EIT Health in the Scandinavian co-location centre and actively collaborates with its linked third party, Tartu University Hospital, and Tartu Biotechnology Park, the Regional Innovation Scheme hub of EIT Health in Estonia. The UT has a portfolio of successful spin-offs in medtech, biotech, pharma etc., and is involved in several business incubators and student training networks. Tartu University Hospital is the largest teaching hospital in Estonia and a strong partner in research and education, providing direct access to clinical trials and patient feedback. The Estonian Biobank owned and curated by the UT is a population-based biobank, consisting of samples and rich eHealth data (from national registers) of over 200,000 gene donors. The Institute of Genomics has a strong competence in genomics, metabolomics, etc. The expertise of the UT Faculty of Medicine includes R&D competencies in innovative anticancer drug candidates, point-of-care diagnostics of infectious diseases, also nutritional and behavioural sciences. Estonia has many encrypted digital population-wide data repositories incorporated into government functions that link the nation’s various databases through end-to-end encrypted pathways (incl. digital medical records, e-prescriptions), opening up piloting opportunities for innovative healthcare solutions and new business models. The University of Tartu is in the lead of developing the Estonian healthcare system by offering its residents genome-wide genotyping that will be translated into personalised reports for use in everyday medical practice through the national e-health portal. The UT’s ambition is to develop and scale up personalised medicine and healthcare solutions in cooperation with EIT Health, national and local governments, startups and companies. The UT is interested in offering its unique competencies in personalised medicine and e-health, population-wide data repositories, using Estonia as a test site for innovative solutions, access to graduate students, acting medical professionals and patients (in Tartu University Hospital) and cooperation with the National Health Board, Health Insurance Fund and other stakeholders.
Key Activities in Corporate Innovation
Medtech, Pharma, Diagnostics, Consumer products, Nutrition, Personalised medicine
Key Activities in Social Innovation
Healthcare provision
Key Activities in Business Creation
Incubation, Technology transfer, Testing & Validation
Key Activities in Education
Entrepreneurship training, Medical faculties, Healthcare professional education/training