Case Study: Firsthand Technology achieves up to 50% pain reduction for burn patients with Dassault Systemes 3DVIA Virtools

Helps doctors reduce burn victims’ pain with 3DVIA Virtools

Firsthand Technology, a small VR developer formed from the University of Washington HIT lab, was asked to create a more flexible, immersive version of SnowWorld to distract burn patients during painful wound care. To meet this challenge the company built the new environment using 3DVIA Virtools from Dassault Systemes (with NVIDIA graphics), aiming for higher immersion and easy, rapid modification for research.

Using 3DVIA Virtools from Dassault Systemes and NVIDIA GPUs, Firsthand rebuilt SnowWorld with richer particle, shader and animation effects and a rapid-prototyping workflow that lets researchers quickly test hypotheses and tweak the experience. The improved solution led to measurable impact: patients report up to a 50% reduction in perceived pain and brain scans have shown as much as a 50% drop in pain-related brain activity, while SnowWorld can now be updated and deployed more affordably in clinical settings.

Firsthand Technology

Ari Hollander

Firsthand Technology