Non-Realtime Social Presence in LumaPath as a Virtual Reality Therapy: Better Adherence for Chronic Pain Treatment?

Abstract

In this poster, we present a pilot study on the efficacy of adherence by adding social components into LumaPath, an Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) built for motivating chronic pain patients to perform range of motion (RoM) exercises, especially aging patients who live with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Osteoarthritis (OA). Based on results from this pilot study as well as from prior work, we propose that adding a certain level of social presence for patients in an IVE such as LumaPathmay positively influence their adherence to using assistive tools for treating arthritis and chronic pain.