Virtual Reality Intervention for Patients Undergoing BMT

Patients undergoing BMT endure substantial physical and psychological symptoms during a prolonged hospitalization with significant risk of complications, which negatively impact their overall quality of life. There is a critical need to develop innovative supportive care interventions to improve the quality of life and care of patients undergoing BMT. This is a single-center, randomized, controlled research study to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of BMT-VR for improving quality of life and reducing psychological stress for patients undergoing BMT. BMT-VR is a self-administered virtual reality psychosocial intervention to address the supportive care needs of patients undergoing BMT. Participants will be recruited and randomized in 1:1 fashion to BMT-VR + usual care versus usual care alone, stratified by transplant type (autologous vs. allogenic BMT) Participants randomly assigned to BMT-VR group will receive usual transplant care by their BMT team and will also be given a virtual reality headset to engage with BMT-VR during their BMT hospitalization. Participants will complete six sections focused on educating them about BMT and helping them manage the physical and emotional symptoms with the BMT process. Participants randomly assigned to the usual care group will receive usual transplant care by their BMT team and will not be given access to the BMT-VR intervention. In both groups, participants are asked to complete questionnaires (in-person, over the computer or telephone, or by mail) at baseline, 2, 4, 12, and 24 weeks after enrolling in the study. It is expected about 80 participants will take part in this study. Rocket VR Health, Inc. is supporting this research study by providing funding.