São João University Hospital in Porto, Portugal, is part of VR4ICU, a project planning immersive virtual reality rehabilitation for intensive care patients. Its goal is to address cognitive and physical challenges associated with long ICU stays and mitigate the effects of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome.
The project brings together the hospital, INESC TEC and Virtuleap. The registered study lists the University of Minho as lead sponsor and Universidade do Porto among its collaborators.
Rehabilitation protocol
The registered VR rehabilitation arm specifies a Meta Quest Pro headset running Virtuleap’s Enhance VR platform. Patients would perform six gamified tasks targeting information processing, attention and memory, alongside motor control, dexterity and bimanual coordination.
The protocol specifies:
- Daily sessions with 12 minutes of active brain-training gameplay.
- An intervention lasting a maximum of seven days.
- A minimum therapeutic dose defined as successful completion of at least 12 individual game sessions.
These durations and participation thresholds describe the planned study intervention.
