Purpose of Review

This review provides medical practitioners with an overview of the present and emergent roles of telehealth and associated virtual reality (VR) applications in chronic pain (CP) management, particularly in the post-COVID-19 healthcare landscape.

Recent Findings

Accumulated evidence points to the efficacy of now well-established telehealth modalities, such as videoconferencing, short messaging service (SMS), and mobile health (mHealth) applications in complementing remote CP care. More recently, and although still in early phases of clinical implementation, a wide range of VR-based interventions have demonstrated potential for improving the asynchronous remote management of CP. Additionally, VR-associated technologies at the leading edge of science and engineering, such as VR-assisted biofeedback, haptic technology, high-definition three-dimensional (HD3D) conferencing, VR-enabled interactions in a Metaverse, and the use of wearable monitoring devices, herald a new era for remote, synchronous patient-physician interactions. These advancements hold the potential to facilitate remote physical examinations, personalized remote care, and innovative interventions such as ultra-realistic biofeedback. Despite the promise of VR-associated technologies, several limitations remain, including the paucity of robust long-term effectiveness data, heterogeneity of reported pain-related outcomes, challenges with scalability and insurance coverage, and demographic-specific barriers to patient acceptability. Future research efforts should be directed toward mitigating these limitations to facilitate the integration of telehealth-associated VR into the conventional management of CP.

Summary

Despite ongoing barriers to widespread adoption, recent evidence suggests that VR-based interventions hold an increasing potential to complement and enhance the remote delivery of CP care.

中文翻译：

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慢性疼痛管理中的远程医疗和虚拟现实技术：叙事回顾

审查目的

本综述为医疗从业者提供了远程医疗和相关虚拟现实 (VR) 应用在慢性疼痛 (CP) 管理中当前和新兴角色的概述，特别是在后 COVID-19 医疗保健领域。

最近的发现

积累的证据表明，目前成熟的远程医疗模式（例如视频会议、短信服务 (SMS) 和移动医疗 (mHealth) 应用）在补充远程 CP 护理方面的有效性。最近，尽管仍处于临床实施的早期阶段，但各种基于 VR 的干预措施已显示出改善 CP 异步远程管理的潜力。此外，处于科学和工程前沿的 VR 相关技术，例如 VR 辅助生物反馈、触觉技术、高清三维 (HD3D) 会议、元宇宙中支持 VR 的交互以及可穿戴监控的使用设备，预示着远程同步医患互动的新时代。这些进步有可能促进远程体检、个性化远程护理以及超现实生物反馈等创新干预措施。尽管 VR 相关技术前景广阔，但仍然存在一些局限性，包括缺乏可靠的长期有效性数据、报告的疼痛相关结果的异质性、可扩展性和保险范围的挑战以及患者可接受性的特定人口障碍。未来的研究工作应致力于减轻这些限制，以促进将远程医疗相关的 VR 整合到 CP 的常规管理中。

概括

尽管广泛采用仍存在障碍，但最近的证据表明，基于 VR 的干预措施在补充和增强脑瘫远程护理方面具有越来越大的潜力。