California global health company Penumbra has launched a non-tethered VR platform for full-body physical therapy.
On Monday, Alameda-based Penumbra announced its latest REAL y-Series product, which lets clinicians track patient movement and progress in real-time.
The hands-free product uses upper and lower body sensors for accurate tracking.
The company says adding lower body tracking enables its REAL System to support a broader range of conditions and functions.
Penumbra says enhanced tracking increases the system’s usefulness from high acuity to high functioning patients.
According to Penumbra, expanding its REAL System will support physical and occupational therapy patients’ physical, cognitive, and mental well-being.
Penumbra Immersive Healthcare General Manager Gita Barry says lack of engagement and maintaining patient motivation are the two largest rehabilitation challenges.
“Penumbra’s latest REAL y-series is the only hands-free, sensor-based VR platform available that provides activities for lower and upper body,” says Barry. “By enabling patients to immerse and visualize their entire body in motion and providing clinicians the ability to individualize each therapy session to challenge and motivate patients, we can maximize the key benefits of rehabilitation therapy by promoting higher engagement and intensity, which has the potential to improve patient outcomes.”
Currently, clinics and hospitals use the REAL y-Series to improve core & balance, cognition, daily activities, and cognitive stimulation.
Citing a YouGov survey, Penumbra says the need for innovative rehabilitation therapy is the greatest it’s ever been.
According to the survey, 75 percent say patient compliance in physical therapy is the biggest challenge.
More than half of the 100 physical therapists surveyed believe VR therapy can help.
Eighty percent of physical therapists responded that the field has changed moderately or not at all over the last decade.
Sixty-five percent say they would be eager to use technologies like VR in their therapy practices.
“Penumbra is advancing the latest immersive healthcare technology to help patients get back to their life with as little impairment as quickly possible,” says Barry. “VR in healthcare can be an extraordinary resource in rehabilitation and with our full body immersive innovation, we know we can have a tremendous impact on a broad range of patients.”
Images: Penumbra