Could Virtual Reality Help Ease Anxiety In The Spanish-Speaking Parents Of Pediatric Patients?
Cultural and language barriers can often increase anxiety in the Spanish-speaking families of some young patients, and a Stanford researcher thinks virtual reality might help with that. The headset transports the parent into a calming natural world where a waterfall flows and an aurora of colorful lights fill the night sky.
Stat:
Inside A Stanford Study On Virtual Reality Aimed At Helping Pediatric Patients
Virtual reality is often confined to the usual Silicon Valley crowd — mostly white and mostly wealthy. But at Stanford University, a new clinical trial is testing the technology in an underserved population: Spanish speakers with limited proficiency in English. The idea for the trial was dreamed up by a 24-year-old researcher who noticed that Spanish-speaking parents of pediatric patients undergoing medical procedures were showing more anxiety than is typical in those cases, often because of language and cultural barriers. That parental anxiety could sometimes trickle down to their kids, making them more anxious about their own procedure. (Robbins, 11/21)
In more news from across the state —
San Francisco Chronicle:
DNA Testing Companies Get Into The Black Friday Game
If you’ve noticed a flood of ads on TV and social media for DNA test kits featuring smiling families gathered around a dinner table, you’re not alone. Consumer genetic testing companies like Burlingame’s Color Genomics and Mountain View’s 23andMe are trying their hand at Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, adopting marketing tactics of more traditional retailers and playing up a familiar theme that resonates with many during this time of year. (Ho, 11/23)
Los Angeles Times:
With Jeff Sessions Out At The Justice Dept., The Marijuana Movement Exhales
Once, during a drug hearing when he was a Senator, he said he wanted to send a clear message: “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.” So when Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions was ousted recently, a collective sigh of relief rose up from proponents of legalized pot — activists, politicians, investors — who felt targeted by the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Sessions’s departure has translated into spiking stocks for cannabis companies and a reset of sorts for the legalization movement which, since 2012, has seen nearly a dozen states pass recreational pot measures. (Lee, 11/25)