Neurorehabilitation VR system for paediatric patients v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Neurorehabilitation VR system for paediatric patients
IRAS ID
359797
Contact name
Ivan Phelan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Hallam University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
SCH-2763, GOSH BRC - Applied Child Health Informatics
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Patients who have undergone neurosurgery are often required to participate in rehabilitative exercises to improve movement and function in their limbs. Physiotherapy interventions for rehabilitation can be painful, uncomfortable, and tedious, reducing patient compliance and limiting the movement and function they achieve.
Clinical studies, including our own previous research with adult burn patients, paediatric upper and lower limb rehabilitations, have reported improvements in pain, compliance and outcomes by incorporating Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) into care. IVR is cost-effective, with few adverse side-effects.
In our previous upper limb rehabilitation studies, the team developed Luna's Light, an award winning system which was shown to be easy to use, motivating, enjoyable, and to reduce pain. It helped improve how far children could move their arms, shoulders, wrists, and elbows, facilitating arm movements such as lifting, bending, straightening.
This study aims to co-design an enhanced version of the Luna's Light system for neurorehabilitation, and run playtests of the system with children and young people currently undergoing treatment.
Preliminary development work is currently being conducted by the team, including observations of rehabilitation sessions, staff consultations and PPI workshops with previous neurorehabilitation patients.
The study aims to recruit 15 children and young people aged 7-16, with their parents or guardians.
Playtests will be run on 3 separate occasions, each with 5 of the recruited participants, and allowing 3-4 months system development time between playtests.
Children will be asked to try out Luna's Light system for 30 minutes. They will be asked a few questions about the experience, its enjoyability, usability and any difficulties, and parents will be asked about their perceptions of the intervention. After playtests are concluded, practitioner interviews will focus on their perceptions of effectiveness, acceptability, and practicality of the IVR intervention.All participant feedback will inform system developments.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/SC/0111
Date of REC Opinion
7 May 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion