You’d call them games. James S. Thomas, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Virginia Commonwealth University, and his team call them interventions for patients with movement disorders.
What began as a clinical trial at VCU to learn whether virtual reality games could relieve lower back pain has evolved to include their use as therapy for those with Parkinson’s disease.
Thomas leads a team of multidisciplinary researchers at VCU’s Motor Control Lab in the College of Health Professions who are developing immersive VR games to help those with trunk control impairments caused by orthopedic or neurological conditions to get moving.
“You feel like you’re playing a game, but what’s happening behind the scenes is that we’ve developed algorithms to tailor the game experience to the individual and encourage you to…
