ICET Hosts Innovations in Mental Health Presentation
The event featured the Indiana University RelateXR team, who uses immersive virtual reality for substance abuse interventions.
A team of researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine has found that virtual reality (VR) can be a powerful weapon in battling addiction. The team has raised nearly $5 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health to support their patent-pending VR-based invention. In a clinical setting, Relate XR patients experience a VR setting, where personalized avatars activate key brain regions linked to introspection and future thinking. This has been linked to successful recovery outcomes.
Hosted by the Indiana Center for Emerging Technologies (ICET) and Elevate Ventures, over 70 people from the University of Evansville, University of Southern Indiana, Ivy Tech, IUSM-Evansville, community foundations, and from mental health facilities attended the presentation from the Relate XR CEO, Izzy Branam.
The IU startup is built around the idea of helping addicts build a “therapeutic alliance with the self” - by envisioning their future with and without drugs. Recently featured in Forbes, Relate XR has been in discussions with the FDA about getting the virtual reality app cleared as a medical device. Branam presented to the audience on how they plan to roll out the technology to treatment centers and individual therapists’ offices.
Relate XR CEO Izzy Branam (right), speaks on the virtual reality treatment provided through Relate XR.
Logan Jenkins, Executive Director of the ICET, explains, “Virtual reality offers a groundbreaking opportunity to reshape the landscape of substance abuse treatment. By immersing individuals in controlled virtual environments, mental health and substance abuse professionals can provide effective, accessible, and personalized therapies."
Jenkins added further, “Having the audience hear Izzy’s story and journey as a startup CEO was enlightening to the participants, as it demonstrated the potential of our talented young Hoosiers. It sparked interest from everyone in the room, as they all have a connection to youth as parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and as educators. This is clearly an area of high interest to mental health professionals and to patients experiencing substance abuse challenges. This technology and others in this realm certainly present opportunities for enhanced treatment of mental health and substance abuse afflictions.”