Lucy Cavendish College alumna, Dr Gita Khalili Moghaddam, works with innovative technology to develop non-drug interventions for a range of global health conditions.
Lucy alumna, Dr Gita Khalili Moghaddam, is partnering with patient engagement specialist Partizan International Ltd, and researchers from the University of Cambridge to develop a novel personalised AI-driven Virtual Reality (VR) technology (TheraVR) to help manage stress and anxiety.
The TheraVR closed-loop technology is a wearable headset that uses embedded sensors to acquire high-temporal resolution EEG, along with other metrics of ECG, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and blood oxygen.
The biosignals that are recorded are then processed by AI to extract the stress index that indicates the effectiveness of the immersive 360° VR content.
The content adjusts in response to the user’s biofeedback. The goal is to optimise visual aspects of the VR content without prior knowledge about the individual patients.
Current technology in the market does not include biometric sensors or a feedback loop so real-time monitoring of the patient’s response is not possible. As the acute biological state of a patient is not measured, these technologies are unable to react to individual characteristics or responses to content.
The biofeedback feature and patient-specific content are distinct innovative aspects of our TheraVR- closed-loop technology that allows us to account for biological variations within the population. The technology can be used to offer highly personalised therapies.
The technology is currently being tested in a clinical study as part of a collaborative philanthropic project for stress and pain management in children aged 7-12 during chemotherapy. The next study is underway and is focused on evaluating the effects of TheraVR intervention on patients undergoing haemodialysis.
For their feasibility study, they are recruiting healthy participants aged 18-40 years who would love to experience the Mixed Reality technology. This study aims to assess how a stressed user with the "right VR experience" would be compared to a "one-size-fits-all VR".
https://mindsetprojectcrf.theravr.ai/studyinclusion
About Gita
Founder and CEO of two biotech companies, a UKRI Innovation Scholar and researcher in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Lucy alumna, Dr Gita Khalili Moghaddam has been recognised by Innovate UK as one of the top 18 women in AI & Data (2019), was a BioBeat Mover & Shaker in BioBusiness (2020) and a Royal Academy of Engineering Young Engineer of the Year (2021).