Medical VR: Clinical applications of virtual reality in medicine today

Medical VR — the term used to refer to virtual reality applied to medicine — is no longer a promise. It is a clinical reality with validated applications, tools in production, and use cases deployed in hospitals around the world, including Italy.

The four major areas of VR in medicine

1. Pain and anxiety management

It is the most mature area. Therapeutic VR is used to reduce anxiety and the perception of pain in contexts such as oncology, pediatrics, surgery, emergency care, and chronic pain therapy. Robust clinical evidence, growing adoption, contained costs.

2. Rehabilitation

Neurological rehabilitation (post-stroke, traumatic brain injury), orthopedic rehabilitation, and cognitive rehabilitation. VR enables more engaging, measurable, and repeatable exercises compared to traditional physiotherapy.

3. Mental health

Controlled exposure for anxiety disorders, PTSD, and phobias. VR-assisted psychological therapies are FDA-approved in some cases and available in specialized clinics in Europe.

4. Medical and surgical training

VR simulators for surgical training, anatomy, and emergency management. They allow complex scenarios to be practiced without risk to patients.

Where medical VR is growing fastest

Pediatric oncology is perhaps the setting with the fastest adoption. Why: the benefits are immediate, children take to the headset without resistance, and the pharmacological alternative is often limited by age. Close behind come adult oncology and surgery.

What medical VR is NOT

It is not a relaxing video game used in a hospital. Medical VR requires: clinically designed content, validation through structured studies, integration into the healthcare workflow, staff training, and continuous feedback collection. The rest is entertainment, legitimate but different.

How to identify a serious project

• Published clinical evidence or evidence in the publication pipeline.

• Partnerships with public hospitals and universities.

• Content developed with multidisciplinary clinical teams.

• Structured training included in the service.

• Transparency about results — even when they are not perfect.

The next decade

Medical VR is moving out of the niche. In the coming years we will see: progressive reimbursement for some applications, shared clinical standards, integration with electronic health records, and personalized content with AI. Italy, thanks to hospitals that are open to innovation and startups like Lemons, is well positioned in this transformation.