Would you be willing to try treating fears and mental distress using a virtual reality app? Many are already using mobile apps today to manage a healthy lifestyle, meditation, treating sleep disorders and improving communication between spouses. The vision of Moshe Redman, an international expert in marketing and innovation, who founded the start-up Anyverse, is that they will take advantage of technology in the psychological field as well. “We recognized that the world of mental health is in a crazy boom, and also in a tremendous lack,” he explains.
“This is a market of hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and more importantly, a market made up of hundreds of millions of people around the world who today receive a very partial and mostly outdated response. Our goal is to create a significant change where possible and leave the complex and hyper-specific treatments to the therapists.”
Anyverse developed the BraVeR application, a kind of virtual reality game, in collaboration with experienced therapists and psychologists, with the first case from which Redman and his people set out dealing with the treatment of phobias. “We examine the level of the patient’s phobia, and accordingly he receives a personalized virtual reality game,” explains Redman. “We call it GVTR, short for Gaming VR Therapy.
“When we start developing a game for a particular phobia, it is designed by a clinical social worker. She starts by researching the mental health literature on the subject, then tests the game on a beta group, and after a round of improvements, on another group of about 20 people to make sure that it Employee”.
When using the technology, there is no accompaniment by a human factor, but by a virtual supporting figure. “But you can stop the exposure at any moment, more easily than when the exposure is real,” says Redman. “The system includes a thimble with sensors on it that examine the level of anxiety, and stop the exposure even without the patient’s intervention, if it seems that he has crossed the line.”
Collaboration with Ichilov
So far the company has raised $1.5 million, and will soon start another seed round. BraVeR is offered as a wellness app, that is, as an alternative treatment that does not need to be approved as a medical treatment, and according to Redman, it is the first app in the world approved for sale in the Facebook VR app store (Meta) that deals with the worlds of mental fitness.
“As long as we don’t compete with drug treatment, we don’t need approval,” says Redman. “If we had turned to an official body such as the DFA, for example, it would have only embarrassed us. Before the launch, we did a professional validation of the product in front of 150 users, and in recent weeks, hundreds more users around the world have purchased it.
“At the same time, we are starting more formal trials for the purpose of building trust in the technology with the users. These days we have started a clinical trial with the Ichilov Hospital, with the aim of helping with fears and anxieties about MRI tests. In the next step, maybe this could be part of the services that employers offer to their employees.”
Full disclosure: Moshe Redman writes for the marketing and advertising section of Globes