=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1547/paper6
|storemode=property
|title=mSinaptiks: An eHealth Platform for Virtual and Augmented Reality Mobile Applications
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1547/paper6.pdf
|volume=Vol-1547
|authors=Ivan Alsina-Jurnet,Frank del Águila,Jordi Peris,Pedro Moreno
}}
==mSinaptiks: An eHealth Platform for Virtual and Augmented Reality Mobile Applications==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1547/paper6.pdf
II International Workshop on Gamification in Health: gHealth 2015
mSinaptiks: An eHealth platform for Virtual and Augmented
Reality mobile applications
Alsina-Jurnet, Ivan1 & 2, Del Águila, Frank1, Peris, Jordi1 & Moreno, Pedro3
1: Sinaptiks Empowerment SL.
Antoni Bros, 128. Terrassa (Barcelona)
e-mail: alsinajurnet@gmail.com, frankdelaguila@sinaptiks.com, jordiperis@gmail.com,
web: http://www.sinaptiks.com
2: Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya
Sagrada Família, 7. 08500 Vic
web: http://www.uvic.cat/
3: Editor de Psiquiatria.com
Pmoreno@psiquiatria.com
web: http://www.psiquiatria.com
Abstract. The rapid growth of the Information and Communication Technologies over
the past decade changed the ways in which people communicate, relate and live. The
health field is not an exception to the 21st century trends, and emerging technologies
such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have started to play a central
role for health professionals. However, most of the current VR and AR applications
have prohibitive costs and a variety of interfaces and tools. This has limited the impact
and the implementation of these technologies in health settings.
mSinaptiks is the first eHealth platform in integrating, under a common interface, a
variety of immersive VR and AR applications for the prevention, evaluation, treatment
and tracking of disabling illnesses and psychological disorders. In addition, the platform
integrates apps for education and professional training. mSinaptiks allows health
practitioners to benefit from affordable and easy-to-use mobile-based apps to improve
the quality of life of their patients.
Keywords: eHealth, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Treatment, Assessment,
Trainning
1. INTRODUCTION
Over the past decade, rapid and far-reaching technological advances have significantly
changed the way people communicate, relate and live. Technological devices and
applications that were hardly used some years ago (or even not exist) are already part of
our daily life. This is given the way to the Information and Communication Society
(Bradley, 2000), characterized by an extensive use of the Internet, computers and
mobile phones in almost every human activity.
The health field is not an exception to the 21st century trends, and ICTs have started to
become common tools for diagnosis, prevention, therapy, education and training. In
particular, emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality
(AR) and mobile devices are starting to play a central role for health professionals
(Botella & Bretón-Lopez, 2014) due its potential to improve the efficacy and efficiency
II International Workshop on Gamification in Health: gHealth 2015
of traditional healthcare processes.
Recent research provides evidence on the clinical efficacy of VR and AR in the
treatment a number of anxiety disorders (Gerardi, Cukor, Difede, Rizzo, & Rothbaum,
2010; Meyerbroker & Emmelkamp, 2010; Opris, Pintea, García-Palacios, Botella,
Szamosköki, David, 2012; Parsons & Rizzo, 2008; Powers & Emmelkamp, 2008;
Turner & Casey, 2014), eating disorders (Riva, Bacchetta, Baruffi, & Molinari, 2002;
Riva, Manzoni, Villani, Gaggioli, & Molinari, 2008), addictions (Hone-Blanchet,
Wensing & Fecteau, 2014), sexual dysfunctions (Optale, Marin, Pastore, Nasta &
Pianon, 2003) or pain management (García-Palacios et al., 2015). In addition, VR and
AR have been used as effective tools for cognitive and motor rehabilitation (Turolla et
al., 2013). However, despite these positive results, their implementation in clinical
settings is still sparse and limited. This is due, at least in part, to the prohibitive costs
associated with using these technologies and to the high amount of existing
applications. In fact, each application has a specific interface and uses different tools.
As a consequence, the practitioner must acquire a variety of artifacts and needs to be
highly familiarized with the specific features of each application. These issues have
limited the impact and the implementation of VR, AR and related technologies in health
settings.
That is way Sinaptiks has developed mSinaptiks, the first eHealth platform that
integrates a variety of medical and health apps in a single interface. The platform allows
health practitioners to use affordable and easy-to-use mobile-based apps to improve the
quality of life of their patients.
2. SINAPTIKS
Sinaptiks is the developer of mobile-based applications that uses the most emerging
technologies to improve traditional healthcare processes. The company designs, creates
and validates VR and AR applications for different stakeholders, including institutions,
associations, practitioners and patients. The solutions developed by Sinaptiks are mainly
directed to clinics, hospitals, practitioners and social and health institutions (table 1).
Field Objectives
Medical Improve information management and healthcare
decision-making. Create closer links between
practitioners and patients.
Health Improve health-related quality of life and well
being of individuals affected by disabling illnesses
and conditions. Empower the patients and promote
self-health management.
Mental Health Evaluation, prevention, tracking and treatment of
psychological disorders. Enhance treatment
adherence and reduce the number of dropouts.
Training Create collaborative and participative learning
scenarios to promote the acquisition of professional
skills and competencies. Use of gamification
techniques to increase engagement and
commitment.
Table 1. Areas of activity and main goals of the company.
II International Workshop on Gamification in Health: gHealth 2015
Founded in 2015, the company integrates a unique team composed by engineers,
designers, physicians and psychologists with more than 10 years of experience in
applying VR to mental health and higher education. The company has now created
mSinaptiks and the first applications for the platform. Sinaptiks is a company that
develops its own apps but also adapts and customizes products from selected partners
(other companies and universities).
3. MOBILE SINAPTIKS
mSinaptiks is the first modular platform that integrates in a single interface different
health-related apps. The platform includes a suite of mobile applications for the
evaluation, prevention, treatment and/or tracking of disabling illnesses and
psychological disorders (figure 1).
Figure 1. The mSinaptiks platform
The platform has an interface for the patient and a web access service for the
practitioner (figure 2):
• The patient: Patients have access to a variety of apps from the Smartphone,
including those based in the use of immersive VR and AR technologies. In these
last cases, the patient needs to slip the smartphone into a Head Mounted Display
(HMD) to be immersed within 3D virtual worlds.
• The practitioner: The health professional accesses to the platform from a
mobile device or a desktop computer and is able to register new patients, link
them to the apps contained in the platform, review each session or obtain
detailed information of the patients’ activity. In the case of VR and AR
applications, the interface allows the professional to see what the patients sees,
adapt in real time the content of the virtual worlds according to the patients’
needs, create graphs, take notes and other features.
Practitioners can use the platform during face-to-face sessions but can also use it
II International Workshop on Gamification in Health: gHealth 2015
remotely. Despite this, note that all applications need the direct supervision of a
practitioner. In a wider sense mSinaptiks allows for a regular and constant connection
between the practitioner and the patient.
Figure 2. mSinaptiks contains a patient interface and a practitioner control panel
4. FIRST APPLICATIONS OF THE PLATFORM
The first applications of mSinaptiks are mainly focused in mental health evaluation and
treatment:
• Fear of public speaking / oratory skills training. The application contains
three VR environments that represent the most common situations related to
public speaking: an auditorium (figure 3), a meeting room and a classroom. The
users can practice oratory skills and confront their fears in a systematic and
controlled way.
Figure 3. The virtual auditorium
II International Workshop on Gamification in Health: gHealth 2015
• ADHD assessment. A VR screening tool developed to evaluate the effects of
pharmacological and/or psychological interventions for ADHD (figure 4). The
app contains a virtual classroom and uses a HMD and a head tracking system.
Within the virtual scenario, children are assessed for performance in visual or
audio attention tasks while a series of typical classrooms distracters appear. As a
result of each session, the system provides information about the attention
performance and the behavior of the child.
Figure 3. Virtual classroom for the evaluation of ADHD
• Coping with anxiety and pain. Immersive VR experience designed as a
method for distracting patients during highly painful and/or stressful situations
(figure 4). The user will visit a pleasant tropical island that contains a variety of
captivating situations: a Japanese garden, a waterfall, a dam, an ancient tree, etc.
This tool can be used in a variety of contexts: dental clinics, pain and surgery
units, health centers or in patients with anxiety or stress.
Figure 4. The virtual island
II International Workshop on Gamification in Health: gHealth 2015
• Behavioral self-reports. This application allows to design and manage
cognitive-behavioral self-reports that patients can fill out through the
Smartphone in their daily live (figure 5). Unlike traditional paper-and-pencil
self-reports, the practitioner can incorporate multimedia elements (such as
pictures or audio notes) and reminders.
Figure 5. App for design behavioral self-reports
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II International Workshop on Gamification in Health: gHealth 2015
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