Why Pain and Anxiety During Procedures Matter
Scans, infusions, blood draws and other routine medical procedures can be genuinely stressful, especially for children and anyone with a fear of needles or enclosed spaces. That stress is not just uncomfortable: anxious, tense patients often report more pain, move more during procedures and sometimes need more sedation, which slows down care for everyone in a busy hospital.
Hospitals have tried many ways to help, from music and breathing exercises to child life specialists and sedation. Over the past few years, virtual reality has emerged as one of the most studied and effective additions to that toolkit.
What the Research Shows
A Large Look at VR and Procedural Pain
A 2024 meta-analysis published in BMC Medicine pooled results from 92 clinical trials covering 7,133 patients. Across a wide range of medical procedures, VR reduced self-reported pain with a standardized mean difference of -0.78, a large effect by clinical research standards.
The benefit was not evenly spread. Some procedures saw especially strong results: venepuncture (blood draws) showed an SMD of -0.99, childbirth-related pain also showed an SMD of -0.99, burn dressing changes showed an SMD of -0.8, and minimally invasive procedures showed an SMD of -0.51. In every category studied, VR moved pain scores in the right direction.
VR Works Especially Well for Children
Children showed the strongest response to VR distraction, with an SMD of -0.91, compared with -0.66 for adults. That lines up with what many pediatric hospitals have already found in practice: a child who is absorbed in an undersea world or a calm virtual garden is a child who is easier to keep still and calm during a scan or an IV placement.
Is It Safe?
A separate 2025 systematic review in the European Journal of Pain, titled "Virtual Reality Is Safe and Can Reduce In-Hospital Anxiety and Pain," reached a similar conclusion from a different angle: across the studies it reviewed, VR was well tolerated by patients and reduced both anxiety and pain during hospital procedures, with no major safety concerns reported.
How VR Distraction Actually Works
The mechanism is simpler than it sounds. Pain and anxiety compete for a limited amount of attention. When a patient is immersed in a calming, engaging virtual environment, less attention is left over to focus on the needle, the noise of the scanner, or the fear of what happens next. Clinicians sometimes describe this as "attention capture" - the same principle that makes a distracting conversation or a favorite song help a little during an uncomfortable moment, but far more immersive and consistent.
Where Nplay Fits In
Nplay has spent years building VR training simulators and immersive environments for industry, government and education across the region. Reading this research, an obvious question followed: could the same VR and environment-design expertise that helps a trainee stay calm and focused in a simulated emergency also help a patient stay calm during a real one?
That question is the starting point for Nplay VR for Hospitals, a concept currently in R&D with clinical partners. It is not a finished product yet, and we are being intentionally careful about that: full specifications are shared under NDA with hospital and healthcare partners as the concept develops, rather than publishing untested claims.
What's Next
We are looking for hospitals and clinical teams who want to help shape this concept from the ground up, grounded in the kind of evidence summarized above rather than hype. If that is you, or if you simply want to learn more about where this is headed, we would like to hear from you.