Doxy.me VR: A scalable virtual reality app to facilitate evidence-based immersive telemental health

PROJECT SUMMARY ABSTRACT Telehealth-based mental health care (TMH) allows clients to access care more conveniently and privately while achieving clinical outcomes equivalent to those of traditional in-person care. However, the format of conventional TMH (e.g., text, audio, and webcams) inherently limits the ways therapists can engage clients in specific evidence-based therapies, nonverbal communication, and the sense of being present with one another. Collectively, these limitations may negatively impact therapeutic alliance, which is the single strongest predictor of clinical outcomes. Incorporating virtual reality (VR) into mental health care has proven to be a reliable way to enhance client engagement, immersive interactivity, and telepresence. To date, VR-based mental health care remains highly localized to specific clinic sites or reliant on prohibitively complex and expensive VR equipment. Doxy.me Inc., the University of South Florida, and Lucid Reality Labs collaborated in a Phase I SBIR to research and develop Doxy.me VR–the world’s first effective, accessible, and scalable platform for evidence-based immersive telehealth. The goal of this Phase II STTR proposal is to optimize the scalability and commercialization of Doxy.me VR by enhancing its existing features, evaluating its clinical efficacy, and prioritizing new therapy content modules. Industry standard, user-centered design practices will guide Doxy.me VR refinements and enhancements necessary to optimize ease of use, presence, and clinical utility in Aim 1. Aim 2 will consist of a fully-powered randomized controlled trial of 160 adults with specific animal phobia comparing exposure therapy via Doxy.me VR vs. conventional TMH. To maximize the commercial potential of Doxy.me VR, Aim 3 will include a mixed methods (quant→qual) survey of 200 practicing TMH providers and 20 follow-up interviews with those providers to identify and prioritize development of new immersive telehealth solutions. This proposal addresses specific goals of the National Institute of Mental Health, particularly NOSI NOT-MH-24-120, promoting access, quality, and effectiveness of mental health care by making effective and engaging VR-based mental health care available at lower costs from the comfort and convenience of home, with unprecedented accessibility.