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Both companies have partnered for the purpose of providing the U.S. Air Force technology that will enhance clinical training, treatment, and consultation of behavioral problems and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“The goal of our partnership with VBI,” said Ron Oberleitner, CEO of Caring Technologies, “is to help the USAF provide returning service members from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom access to the best possible treatment by internationally recognized psychological experts by combining the use of virtual reality and telehealth technologies.”
The virtual reality technology being used to treat service members with PTSD, called Virtual Iraq, allows soldiers to re-experience traumatic events in the safety of a controlled environment and under the supervision of a mental health expert. The USAF treatment providers, with the consent of their patients, will then capture video of the session using B.I. Capture, a telehealth solution that is used by health care and education professionals to capture video of behaviors. The videos can then be used clinically for the purpose of training, supervision, behavior analysis, and assessment, all of which can be done remotely. The USAF treatment providers will be able to reference the video on their computers, annotate specific occurrences, and then send it securely for review.
“With Behavior Imaging, our virtual reality treatment providers can safely share their session videos and receive more efficient consultation from the leading experts in mental health, many of whom are not located in close proximity to the soldiers who need the treatment,” noted Dr. Josh Spitalnick, Director of Research and Clinical Services of VBI. “As clinicians become more specialized and trained, it is the patients who ultimately benefit from increased access to the most current and evidence-based treatment offerings,” added Dr. Spitalnick.
VBI was recently awarded a 5-year contract by the U.S. Air Force’s Office of the Air Force Surgeon General, Telehealth and Enterprise Imaging Branch to provide clinical training and consultation for the treatment of PTSD and other psychological issues. To ensure the highest caliber clinical treatment, training, and consultation for USAF mental health treatment providers, VBI provided eight U.S. Air Force bases with virtual reality software and B.I. Capture, Caring Technologies’ Behavior Imaging™ tool.
VBI will also be providing its behavior imaging solutions to a national audience to help institutions improve training and credentialing of clinicians specializing in mental health.
Caring Technologies, Inc. (Boise, Idaho) (caringtechnologies.com) is a telehealth company dedicated to advancing Behavior Imaging technology as a means of more effectively assessing, treating, and training professionals working with autism, PTSD, and other behavioral conditions.
Virtually Better, Inc. (Decatur, Georgia) is known world-wide as an innovator in the creation of evidence-based virtual reality environments for the health care industry, with an emphasis on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral disorders.
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