A local hospital is drawing attention by winning a patent in cognitive rehabilitation treatment using a 3D virtual reality (VR) technology.

The Gil Medical Center and Gachon University’s industry-university cooperation foundation said on Monday they registered the patent in “a method and system using 3D virtual reality for the treatment of cognitive impairment.” Professor Lee Ju-kang of Gachon University Gil Medical Center’s physical medicine and rehabilitation department had developed the system.

The invention allows doctors to treat a wide range of cognitive disorders, including dementia, with all the different kinds of virtual space. Physicians expect better treatment results with the new technology, which offers virtual areas such as homes that are more familiar to patients than hospital’s treatment rooms.

To build 3D background information, the user of the program should visit the patient’s home and scan it first. Then, the user can save it as a database.

“Existing dementia treatments are quite limited, as most of them focus on prevention of further progress rather than on cure. Thus, it is becoming more important to use rehabilitation treatment to prevent dementia-derived adjustment disorders or accidents in daily life,” the medical center stated in the patent explanation.

“Existing treatments include cognitive rehabilitation offered in a limited environment such as hospital’s treatment room and cognitive training through a few computer programs, which are far from real life,” it went on to say. “By generating 3D virtual reality, we have developed a system to give patients easier access to necessary environment and targets and treat their cognitive impairment.”

Earlier, the hospital unveiled a plan to open a “VR Life Center” next January to treat patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder.

“If we combine VR technology with medical treatment software, we can reenact an environment, which is difficult to visit in reality and expect better treatment results,” the hospital said. “VR treatments have already been used as a psychological treatment for a phobia and an addiction and have proven effective.”

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