“[Through using immersive technologies], we turn what could be a very negative experience from [a child’s] perception into a very positive one.”

How might we reimagine a child’s experience in the hospital so that it’s less painful and anxiety-inducing? Pediatric anesthesiologists Sam Rodriguez, MD, and Tom Caruso, MD at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, are finding innovative ways to answer this question through a program they developed called CHARIOT, which helps reduce anxiety through immersive technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, and smart projectors.

In this episode, Dr. Caruso describes the technologies and games they've developed, how they’ve helped thousands of kids, what inspired him to work in pediatrics, and his vision to use CHARIOT to help kids worldwide.

Episode Length: 32:39 min.

• 1:49 - How the CHARIOT program has gamified traditional therapy for kids through virtual reality
• 4:29 - Background of the CHARIOT program and Dr. Sam Rodriguez's involvement in co-founding CHARIOT
• 8:52 - Dr. Caruso describes an early game developed, Sevo the Dragon, which incorporates smart projectors and a cartoon dragon to assist in delivering anesthesia.
• 12:22 - Dr. Caruso describes use cases for the CHARIOT program, including perioperatively, to facilitate dressing changes, and to help facilitate rehabilitation.
• 15:14 - Virtual reality "is usually utilized using a head-mounted display headset, and you place this headset over your eyes. And within the headset, you see computer-generated imagery of a world that we've created that is sometimes unlike the one you're currently in."
• 16:48 - Four facets of the CHARIOT program include hardware modification, software development, research, and clinical adoption.
• 19:20 - How Dr. Caruso became involved in pediatrics
• 21:36 - Why Dr. Caruso is passionate about working for Packard Children's Hospital
• 22:51 - "This sort of program doesn't just happen organically. It only happens if there's a passion and enthusiasm for really transforming patients' care."
• 23:48 - How the community has supported CHARIOT
• 25:08 - Regarding the need for continued support, Dr. Caruso recalls the ways immersive technology can be used. "And the use cases are not decreasing, they're expanding."
• 27:31 - Dr. Caruso's vision for a virtual center for immersive technologies at Packard Children's Hospital
• 29:27 - How Dr. Caruso spends time in nature