On March 1, XRHealth plans to launch its first virtual reality telehealth clinic in eight states and Washington DC. 

The new technology is set to bring VR therapy into the patient’s home by combining therapeutic software, telehealth support and a VR headset to deliver remote rehabilitation services. Patients can use this service for a number of conditions including traumatic brain injury, stroke rehabilitation, stress, anxiety, chronic pain, hot flashes and spinal cord injuries. 

Patients will be given an assessment by one of XRHealth’s telehealth clinicians. Following this assessment, patients will then get a VR headset in the mail, if they do not already have one. Next a patient will have virtual training, during which the clinical staff will be able to remotely control what is shown on patient’s VR headset and be able to adjust the therapy. 

Eventually the patient will be able to use the headset independently. However, a patient’s data will continue to be collected during the therapy and analyzed. The clinician can take a look at this data and monitor the patient's status regularly. 

The company said that the new service is covered by Medicare and most major insurance providers. 

WHY IT MATTERS 

As VR continues to make waves in the healthcare world, its primary use case has been at brick-and-mortar clinics and hospitals. This new telemedicine VR clinic will offer a new means of bringing the technology into the patient’s home, and supporting their therapy in real time. 

“We are utilizing the most advanced forms of technology like virtual reality to provide patients with optimal care in the comfort of their own homes while providing top-notch clinicians with ongoing status of their progress,” Eran Orr, CEO of XRHealth, said in a statement. “Patients can now ‘go’ to a virtual clinic without the need to leave their homes at all.”

THE LARGER TREND 

Formerly called VRHealth, the company was founded in 2016. It has since made deals with a number of partners in the VR space. In 2018 it inked a deal with Oculus on a range of healthcare-focused VR applications, including experiences for mothers experiencing labor pain and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. 

It has also been developing new therapies. For example, in 2018 it launched software designed to help individuals experiencing hot flashes. More recently the company announced that it is opening up its platform to third-party developers.

Mindfulness and meditation app maker Headspace has announced a Series C funding round consisting of $53 million in equity and $40 million in debt financing. The investment was headed by blisce/, with participation from new backers Waverly Capital and Times Bridge as well as prior investors The Chernin Group, Spectrum Equity and Advancit Capital.

WHAT THEY DO

Santa Monica-based Headspace’s primary product is a free-to-download meditation app. Once they’ve enrolled, users pick an area of their mental or behavioral health they’d like to focus on and receive a sample of meditative exercises targeting this area. Upon subscribing to the paid service, users are provided hundreds of guided mindfulness offerings and sessions. 

Alongside the consumer app, the company also has groups and products dedicated to employer benefits programs and mental health-focused meditation.

These offerings seem to have found an audience. According to the Headspace, its digital products have seen more than 62 million downloads across 190 countries, more than 2 million paid subscribers and over 600 corporate customers.

WHAT IT’S FOR

According to the announcement, Headspace plans to continue supporting and growing its core D2C offering, its Headspace for Work B2B segment and its digital health subsidiary, Headspace Health. The company also emphasized its app’s recent French and German localization, as well as other international expansion efforts within South America and Asia.

“As we think about the next ten years and beyond, we [at Headspace] are focused on harnessing this power and applying it to other areas of our members’ lives to help them create healthy routines that last a lifetime — whether that is through our Headspace consumer app, the work we currently do with hundreds of employers, or with healthcare providers as we look to deliver better access,” Richard Pierson, CEO and cofounder of Headspace, said in a statement. “We are excited to work with leading global investors who share our vision to improve the health and happiness of the world.”

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Headspace finds itself in good company when it comes to consumer-friendly digital behavioral health tools. Those most analogous to Headspace include meditation and sleep app Calm, which raised more than $100 in Series B funding last year, and guided meditation app Simple Habit, which raised $10 million in late 2018.

ON THE RECORD

“Headspace’s mission to make health and happiness more accessible to people around the world resonates deeply with blisce/’s core belief that it is possible to both ‘Do Good’ while also building a strong business with sustainable growth,” Alexandre Mars, founding partner of blisce/, said in a statement. “We are proud to partner with Rich, Andy [Puddicombe] and the entire Headspace team in their commitment to transforming the mindfulness and meditation space through scientific research and authentic expertise, and are excited to support the impact they’re making on mental health, not only through the consumer app, but through their efforts across healthcare, digital medicine, science and the workplace.”