Nervous patients calm down with the HappyMed video glasses!

The program offers either entertainment or relaxation for all ages – for children as well as for seniors. Patients can choose among feature films, comedies, documentaries, nature relaxation, classical concerts, and children’s series.

According to a survey in several clinics of a German chain of clinics (n = 110), 92% of the patients would use HappyMed again. The medical staff enjoy working with HappyMed in more than 80% of the cases. In 45% of the interventions, HappyMed can save on sedatives, painkillers or anesthetics. In 73% of these cases, medication could even be completely dispensed with.

Virtual reality glasses are very popular in the entertainment industry, but have some disadvantages in medical use in the OR. When wearing the virtual reality glasses, the patient should be able to move and turn his head; this is the only way to perceive the full environment. In the operating room, however, it does not make sense for patients to move their head back and forth. It has also been found that virtual reality glasses can cause dizziness in some patients. Another disadvantage is the focus on the visual level. Patients are only distracted spatially and not acoustically. So you can perceive the surrounding noises and that in turn makes the calming effect more difficult. For these reasons, we at HappyMed use classic video glasses with headphones.

> Read more: 10 advantages of using 2D glasses versus virtual reality glasses for medical interventions

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In the case of children, it is particularly useful to use it in the pre-operartive room. So you come to the operating room relaxed and only see the transfer from the bed to the operating table before the medical and film programs continue.

> Read more: HappyMed distracts children before the operation and the use of medication can be reduced by 50 – 70 percent

The video glasses are exclusively rented. The monthly subscription cost is just €199. That includes the complete system and the film licenses.

Device purchase is unfortunately not possible. The background to this is the ongoing license fees for the commercial use of the films and the management of the associated contracts, which means that HappyMed takes over the full curation of the content, including the management of the rights of use. Hospitals are thus comprehensively protected by law. The contents are also regularly updated and expanded. In addition to the medical advantages of calmer patients, there are also positive economic effects for the hospital. The audiovisual distraction saves drugs. Above all, it relieves the nursing staff in preparation for the operation and in the recovery room.

Medical interventions are associated with stress and anxiety . Some patients require higher doses of sedatives and / or analgesics for this reason. Frightened patients also opt for general anesthesia more often , even if, for example, the upcoming procedure would also be possible under regional anesthesia. The sequelae of higher drug doses etc. include the occurrence of postoperative delirium, a longer period of time before extubation or a longer stay in the recovery room. Taken as a whole, this results in an increased amount of care on the part of the anesthetists and nursing staff.

Examples with cost estimates:

• Patients who develop postoperative delirium have to stay an average of 4.2 days longer in the hospital and thus consume additional resources worth around € 1,200.
• Patients who were additionally pharmaceutically sedated before the regional anesthesia must be monitored in the recovery room for 2 hours after the operation. If you rate an hour in the recovery room with costs of approx. 600 €, this results in additional costs of 1,200 € for this one patient.

With the HappyMed video glasses there is a potential for savings through more regional anesthesiainstead of general anesthesia, through less pharmaceutical sedation, through a shorter time to extubation, through a shorter time in the recovery room, through a reduced risk of postoperative delirium and through the relief of the anesthesia and / or nursing staff.

In June 2021, for example, in the anesthesia department in the Schrobenhausen district hospital, the effect of HappyMed video glasses was examined on 88 patients over a period of 5 months . The evaluation not only dealt with the effect of audiovisual sedation on patients, but also included process-oriented topics such as the assessment of economic factors.

It was found here that the patient’s level of anxiety is significantly reduced through the use of glasses and that sedatives could be partially or completely reduced in over 80% of the interventions, according to the assessment of the treatment team.

Finally, it was possible to prove in an economic analysis that the use of HappyMed video glasses is also economical: despite primarily additional costs, the profitability could be proven through positive secondary and tertiary effects . An extrapolation allows the conclusion that the amortization of the video glasses with an isolated consideration of the sequela of “delirium” occurs with an avoidance of this per 113 uses.

The author goes on to say that, from an economic point of view, the marketing effect of video glasses can also create added value. Because other marketing measures are hardly feasible for such low expenditure as for the HappyMed video glasses.

You can find current reports on our press page . Innovative technologies are a magnet for local media and well-known TV & radio stations such as ORF, MDR, Das Erste, ProSieben, SAT.1 or RTL have already reported on HappyMed.

You can read more about the study here or you can download a more extensive whitepaper on savings potential in hospitals here.