Dr Tom Bainton, Consultant Gynaecologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, is leading an innovative virtual reality (VR) hologram project for patients with endometriosis. In this video, Tom talks about how a project jointly grant-funded by CW+ and The Friends of Chelsea & Westminster Hospital is supporting women’s health by improving the quality of consultations and helping patients better understand their condition and treatment.
Watch the video or read the transcript below.
Tom discusses how VR is helping endometriosis patients at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Supporting patients with endometriosis
So I’m Dr Tom Bainton. I’m one of the Consultant Gynaecologists at Chelsea and Westminster specialising in endometriosis.
The VR hologram project is designed to help us create 3D anatomical holographic models of various anatomy.
Endometriosis is a really difficult condition to live with. A lot of the reason for that is the whole spectrum of what can be terribly severe symptoms that frankly can be terrifying.
Endometriosis is not just a painful period, it’s a lying on the bathroom floor in cold sweats, having needles put in you type pain.
It has a significant delay in diagnosis above anything else. We see patients on average between eight and 12 years after they had symptoms that started, and that’s for various reasons, but there’s an awful lot to unpack in a relatively short consultation.
We have half an hour with a new patient, which is adequate for some conditions, but when you’ve had symptoms for nine years and you are only just learning about what endometriosis is and how it might affect you, there’s an awful lot to discuss.
Helping patients understand their condition
I think the impact of the VR hologram project for women with endometriosis is huge.
When we’re discussing these anatomical changes, it can be quite difficult to conceptualise and we try our best drawing small diagrams of things and explaining what we might do during surgery, for example.
But having 3D holograms, being able to directly visualise the anatomical changes in front of you just has that instant understanding.
We can strip away layers, we can rotate the anatomy, we can look within the organs to discuss things like depth of endometriosis infiltration, which correlates with how symptoms might change after surgery. And also, lots of the perioperative risks.
They know exactly what the plan is and they know where that risk is and how we can try and mitigate that using various medications before surgery, for example.
Improving the patient experience
So, it really enhances the patient experience and it means that from the health service perspective, it’s a little bit more efficient in our pathways as well because within that 30-minute consultation, we’ve been able to impart the expert knowledge that we are trying to convey in terms of what those changes are so that they leave with confidence and understanding of their condition rather than needing to have continued back and forth.
I truly believe that when someone actually understands their disease at that core level, they know what the anatomical changes are.
It demystifies a lot of it and it can make suffering with what can be extraordinary levels of pain a little bit less terrifying because they understand the root cause of it.
Why innovation matters
The CW+ grants programme is so important for what we’re doing in the Trust.
It’s one of the big attractions for me certainly to work at a hospital like Chelsea and Westminster, which has a fantastic attitude towards research, innovation and having cutting-edge technology, things like VR, to be able to really enhance the patient experience.
So the ability to apply for these grants from charities like CW+ and the Chelsea and Westminster Friends Charity, whose remit is really to enhance the icing on the cake above and beyond what we’re able to do at the core NHS level, is absolutely invaluable.
And we’re extremely grateful.
They’re able to support the project and anyone with an idea in the Trust who thinks they can improve patient experience, improve innovation, make things more efficient, make things safer and ultimately often save the NHS money is able to take their idea forward, be nurtured by the people in CW+ around them, and apply for these grants and then take their idea even to the next level.
We’ve already had discussions with this VR project about what more we can do. We are already using VR in other aspects of gynaecology, in maternity and with other specialties.
Once you do something and you make it a success, other people can ride on that and roll with the ideas themselves.
CW+ invests more than £500,000 in grant funding every year to support the staff at our Trust.
Please do not reproduce without permission
CW+ supports staff across Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to develop innovative projects that improve outcomes and experiences for patients and families.
