Scanning Swansea

Scanning Swansea is an exciting new project born from the success of the VR in Dementia initiative. The primary goal is to trial immersive 3D-scanned environments with patients on a ward housing the elderly at Morriston Hospital, Swansea.

Two months ago I was presenting the VR in Dementia project to NHS workers, within that meeting it became clear that Morriston Hospital had ten VR headsets available but unused. The Scanning Swansea project aims to bring those headsets into use by offering elderly patients calming, familiar virtual environments — and to assess whether this immersion can relieve anxiety, improve mood, and enhance overall wellbeing during their hospital stay.

The first trial will involve patients engaging with full 360° scanned VR environments of Swansea locations, directly from their hospital beds. We will be:

• Assessing mood improvements and emotional responses before and after VR use.

• Exploring the role of immersive, familiar places in supporting mental health and wellbeing in a clinical setting.

• Gathering feedback to refine future VR healthcare interventions.

  
  

This pilot represents a new step in using accessible VR technology to support patients' emotional needs, especially in environments where mobility, boredom, and anxiety are common challenges.

After presenting the project idea in Gower Colleges 'Health Academy', all students were keen to get inolved and were each given tuition in using PolyCam, and were also given a location to scan in Swansea.

This project is currently ongoing. After all students have submitted their 360° scans, we will thern research a solution to hosting all scans across 10 headsets. Next we will navigate the research ethics in collaboration with Morriston Hospital, and we are hoping that students will be able to facilitate the process of testing the headset experience with patients at the hopital as part of their work experience.