Featured News

Study: Youth Prescription Opioid Overdoses Increased During Early Stages of COVID-19 Pandemic

New research from experts at Nationwide Children’s Hospital shows a spike in emergency department visits among youth for prescription opioid overdoses during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need for increased prevention efforts for children and teens.

What Features Make Virtual Reality Effective in Pain Management?

Researchers from Nationwide Children’s Hospital show that three key features of a virtual reality intervention (game realism, fun and engagement) influence self-reported pain scores during burn dressing changes. The findings provide insight into the potential mechanisms through which virtual reality affects pain perception.

Virtual reality game reduces paediatric patients’ pain during treatment

Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-generated, simulated 3D environment that allows users to experience and interact with a particular scene as though they were inside. It usually requires a headset for visual input and headphones for audio input. The immersive nature of VR makes it an ideal distraction tool, providing paediatric patients with an engaging environment to focus on during a painful medical procedure.

Study Shows Amount and Days of Opioids Prescribed at Discharge Decreased After 2017 Ohio Prescription Opioid Cap Law

The Ohio Opioid Cap Law, enacted on August 31, 2017, limited the total dose and duration of opioids that could be prescribed for minors. The anticipated benefit of cap laws in preventing opioid overdose, death and addiction was counterbalanced by fears that decreased opioid prescribing could hurt patient satisfaction. Assessing the impact of state prescribing cap laws on opioids prescriptions is essential, given the large amount of opioids prescribed for postoperative pain management and the risk for addiction or overdose.

Using Virtual Reality Games to Reduce Dressing Change Pain in Pediatric Burn Patients

Smartphone-based virtual reality games can reduce dressing change pain for pediatric patients receiving outpatient burn treatment.

Virtual Reality as Pain Relief: Reducing Dressing Change Pain in Pediatric Burn Patients

According to the American Burn Association, burn injuries affect approximately 250,000 children in the United States each year. The pain associated with burn injuries extends beyond the injury itself; there is also significant pain from dressing changes, which can be exacerbated by the anxiety of anticipating this additional pain.

Although opioids relieve burn injury-related pain, they have serious adverse side effects. Prior studies have investigated alternative approaches to pain reduction in burn injury patients that focus on distraction, such as music, hypnosis, toys, and virtual reality (VR).

Innovative Biostatistical Methodology for Causal Evaluation of Medical Treatments

Medical records are readily available nowadays, but using medical records to evaluate medical treatments is full of challenges. Henry Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD, professor of medicine and principal investigator in the Center for Injury Research and Policy, collaborated with biostatisticians from The Ohio State University College of Public Health to develop a novel statistical method for the biomedical field that allows them to use more than one treatment arm in observational data.