VR creates calm, awakens memories and motivates exercise for people with physical, mental or cognitive disabilities
We offer SYNCSENSE® - a virtual reality-based digital exercise and experience technology that supports rehabilitation, activity and care for neurological and older medical patients as well as citizens with dementia, brain injury, reduced physical function or other cognitive and mental challenges. SYNCSENSE® is a professional, evidence-based tool that therapists, care staff and other professionals use nationwide to promote physical activity, create meaningful and present experiences and improve quality of life. The VR solution is translated into English and is available across Europe, England and the USA.
Over 100 customers are already improving quality of life for thousands of citizens and patients - are you next? We help hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, dementia centers, residential facilities, activity and day services and other health and care services. We would also like to help you! Get started with VR easily and safely with us as your new supplier.
Customers and good partners
Randers Municipality decided to purchase VR solutions for all 19 nursing homes after a convincing pilot test. The VR solutions help the municipality increase physical activity and quality of life for all its citizens.
Developed in close collaboration with therapists and care staff
Since 2019, in collaboration with therapists and care staff, we have strengthened health in more than 35 municipalities, regions and among private healthcare actors.
The SYNCSENSE® solution is continuously improved – always in collaboration with therapists and care staff based on concrete professional experiences and wishes. We are an interdisciplinary team of leading engineers and digital health specialists. This is your assurance that the VR solution is future-proof and that you can receive world-class support along the way.
Who is the SYNCSENSE® VR solution for?
SYNCSENSE® is developed for people with physical, cognitive or social needs who may benefit from more motivation for movement, cognitive stimulation, sensory experiences and meaningful presence.
The solution is used for neurological and older medical patients as well as citizens with dementia, brain injury, reduced physical function or other cognitive and mental challenges. It can be used in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, dementia centers, residential facilities, activity and day services and other health and care services.
SYNCSENSE® is a flexible 2-in-1 solution with both a physical exercise module and a cognitive experience and stimulation module.
For people who need motivation for movement and exercise
The physical exercise module is relevant for patients and citizens with reduced mobility, low activity level or lack of motivation for physical exercise. The VR experiences can be combined with, for example, exercise bikes and seated cross-trainers and can make exercise more motivating, engaging and meaningful.
The module can be used to support rehabilitation, retraining, mobilization and maintenance training.
For people who need cognitive stimulation, calm and meaningful experiences
The cognitive module is relevant for people with dementia, brain injury, cognitive impairment or a need for sensory stimulation and activation. It can also be used for patients and citizens who experience passivity, understimulation, restlessness or have limited opportunities to get out and experience the world independently.
The sensory-stimulating VR experiences can awaken memories, create recognition and conversation, and contribute to calm, presence and positive shared experiences.
One solution - different needs
For some, SYNCSENSE® is first and foremost a tool for creating motivation for movement and exercise. For others, it is about awakening memories, stimulating the senses, creating calm or providing access to experiences that may otherwise be difficult to have.
The solution can be adapted to the individual's interests, resources, condition on the day and functional level, and used by therapists, care staff and other professionals. Relatives and volunteers can also help start VR experiences and create activity, presence and shared experiences.
Benefits of the exercise module
The VR solution is used in combination with exercise machines and our specially designed pedal sensor. The user experiences exceptional nature and city walks all while using the exercise equipment. In this way, "boring" exercise machines are transformed into meaningful experiences, so otherwise dull exercise becomes fun and motivating.
The VR solution's physical exercise module contributes to:
- Increase motivation for exercise and adherence to exercise.
- Increase exercise duration and intensity.
- Make facilitation of self-managed exercise easier.
- Improve mood and quality of life.
Benefits of the engagement module
The VR solution is used as experiential input. A tablet app streams so staff can follow what the user sees in the VR headset. The app makes it possible for VR-film to be adapted and personalized with interactive quizzes, puzzles, guided tours and dog walks. Furthermore, the app consists of conversation and reflection questions intended to ease dialogue, increase person involvement and stimulate cognition.
The VR solution's cognitive engagement module contributes to:
- Train and stimulate cognitive function.
- Create meaningful experiences and a conversation tool.
- Awaken personal memories through reminiscence and life-history conversations.
- Create calm and lower the conflict level.
- Reduce outwardly reactive and door-seeking behavior.
- Provide sensory stimulation and regulate arousal level.
- Improve mood and quality of life.
What does the VR solution consist of and why choose SYNCSENSE®. We have described that HERE.
Documented effect
More than 1,000 therapists and care staff are thoroughly trained and they have together carried out over 75,000 exercise programs distributed across 35 municipalities, regions and among private healthcare actors. Experiences show over almost 10 years that SYNCSENSE® is a gain for both patients and citizens as well as the healthcare staff and their organizations.
We have carried out 2 randomized clinical studies and 25 case studies, where SYNCSENSE® has been examined and evaluated on in- and outpatients at hospitals, rehabilitation units and nursing homes.
For patients and citizens
- Meaningful and present VR experiences: Awaken memories, provide sensory stimulation and create calm.
- Motivation: Increases motivation and energy to exercise and participate in physical and social activities.
- Direct exercise effect: Increases exercise duration and intensity. *
- Indirect exercise effect: Increases the general activity level throughout the day with increased number of steps and sit-to-stand. *
- Quality of life: Increases quality of life. *
- User-friendly and easy to use: It requires one click of a button and then you are started. SYNCSENSE® does not require login and internet, which is why it is also easy and straightforward for relatives and volunteers. Read an interview with Søren, who is a volunteer, HERE.
- Easy and flexible: The SYNCSENSE® solution is transported in a handbag and can be used everywhere.
For healthcare staff and their organizations
- Health benefits: Patients and citizens can achieve an increased activity level, maintenance of the functional level, as well as greater self-reliance and independence.
- A new tool for creating calm in conflict-filled situations: With the SYNCSENSE® solution, staff get an extra tool in the toolbox. The present and meaningful VR experiences can have a calming and distracting effect and thereby help lower the conflict level and outwardly reactive behavior for patients and citizens when challenging situations arise.
- Economic benefits: With the SYNCSENSE® solution some patients and citizens become more active, which means that they can manage more themselves and thus need less help. The freed-up time makes it possible to exercise more with more people.
- Exercise equipment are used more: With the SYNCSENSE® solution, exercise becomes more enjoyable for patients, citizens, and staff alike. We have seen several examples where the VR solution doubles and triples the use of existing exercise machines, by up to 236%.
- Increased self-exercise frees staff resources: The SYNCSENSE® solution is good for facilitating self-managed exercise on an exercise machine after being started by the staff. The solution frees staff resources by up to 59% in relation to bicycle exercise. *
- Proven implementation: We have almost 10 years of experience with data-driven implementation. We help you throughout to ensure a good beginning and solid anchoring. We do this through our best practice approach. We involve ourselves actively in the implementation process in connection with training and ongoing meetings. We further offer full support, so staff can always call us all 7 days of the week between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m CET. The implementation can be automatically and continuously monitored based on data reports, which are your assurance that the interest and the positive effects are maintained over time and that the SYNCSENSE® solution does not lose its novelty value.
* In 2 randomized clinical studies, the effect of SYNCSENSE® has been investigated. It showed several positive results, including a significant increase in quality of life, exercise duration and general activity level. We have compiled results and evidence in a white paper. If you wish to have it sent – please contact us.
This is what your colleagues say about SYNCSENSE®
"SYNCSENSE VR solution we use especially for our long-term hospitalized cardiac patients as a supplement to traditional training. It is particularly beneficial for the patients in the time period when the therapists are not present. It has turned out that many of the patients also find motivation in the individual VR training videos for life after the hospital stay.
There are continuously more and greater demands on the staff's IT skills. SYNCSENSE VR solution is really simple and easy to use – it is something everyone can figure out, including the patients themselves."
"We are so ready to join the journey with VR headsets for patients admitted to Nyk. F. Hospital. Simple and easy operation, many patients with different diagnoses can benefit from that form of combined training and relaxation. Increase motivation for movement and for several increase quality of life. Patients can, among other things, watch local VR films from many of the places they remember and have lovely memories from."
"I had not worked with the VR solution for many months before one success experience followed the other. The experience I would like to share that touched me a lot is from a citizen who earlier in his life had been very active, but who has now developed muscle wasting in the legs, which bothers him a lot. The citizen has expressed that he does not wish to live longer because of his reduced functional level. He used to cycle on his tricycle around Langelinie and Amalienborg. And since there is a VR film from this place, I thought he was an obvious choice to try the VR headset. And it was a great success! He smiled and laughed throughout the entire bike ride and was very positive about the whole experience. Along the way he said that he no longer feels ill. Afterwards he gladly and actively participated in the community for coffee and cake and was incredibly motivated to start and come regularly to the centre to be able to VR-cycle this route, which he had missed so much.
This experience underlined for me how important it is to look for tools that provide new opportunities to improve the quality of life for our citizens and how even a short 15-minute VR film can evoke such a great feeling of joy and meaning in life."
"We in Lolland Municipality are happy about the simple and straightforward way the VR headsets from SYNCSENSE work and, of course, also the fact that the solution contributes to free hands among the healthcare professionals, increased movement among our elderly citizens, and a higher quality of life in the present with the help of welfare technology."
"We have long worked with VR and think that the solution from SYNCSENSE meets our needs and therefore fits well into our work with physical training and mobility. The content is adapted to our target group and we see that the VR experience motivates increased training effort and facilitates conversations among the admitted citizens. We use VR directly as part of the physical training and the easy operation makes it possible for us also to offer it as an activity offering in the form of self-training or with help from volunteers in the outer hours of the day."
"VR training helps to improve living conditions and the good elderly life. The VR training gives the residents an active and entertaining breathing space – and it motivates them to train again and again.
The VR solution is a supplementary tool that both our care staff and therapists use. We have recently initiated an implementation strategy that seeks to engage and involve the relatives, so they feel like helping and contributing to activating our residents to an even higher degree than we are ourselves able to."
"I prefer the VR solution from SYNCSENSE, as it is incredibly simple and easy to operate. The VR solution motivates the residents to more physical and cognitive training and also gives me a tool for effective sensory integration. Among other things, it can reduce outwardly reactive behavior, regulate the arousal level and has a positive effect on the residents' opting for social activities.
We therefore experience that the VR solution contributes to increasing quality of life and makes many of our residents more self-reliant. We generally experience that our bikes are used more with VR – there is even a queue for the bikes sometimes because the residents request VR cycling.
In our study we saw that all 3 residents increased watts, revolutions and the time for which they cycled. One resident went from cycling 15 minutes to 30 minutes while another went from cycling 1 km to 8 km. A third resident and wheelchair user got the feeling of being able to "walk" again. The potential for this technology is therefore enormous within training and neurorehabilitation."
"The VR solution is very easy to operate. It is designed so accessibly that I myself figured out how to use the VR headset when I took it out of the box the first time – without being able to get through the instructions.
One of our patients with brain injury, whom we had difficulty motivating to train much more than 7 minutes on the NuStep, trained a total of 17 minutes with the VR headset on. We had to stop him in the end so he wouldn't become overtired. The fact that he could follow along virtually on a trip out into nature and was stimulated by the VR headset had a good effect.
The VR solution is a new intervention that has the potential to pioneer rehabilitation of brain injury and other neurological disorders."
"VR as a tool for sensory integration, relationships and quality of life.
As a psychomotor therapist, I work with body, senses and relationships. Recently, I experienced how VR can not only create visual experiences, but also open up memories, emotions and life story. A simple VR church service turned into a moment of presence, singing and conversation about the meaning of life.
Technology cannot replace human contact – but it can create new spaces for quality of life."
Read Andreas's full article.
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