Emerging Communication

Series and list of volumes

    Communication in VR

    Towards CyberPsychology

    Say not to say

    Cybertherapy

Preface

Web-only contents

Introduction

Contents

Contributors

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Edited by:

G. Riva
Istituto Auxologico Italiano 
Milan, Italy

C. Botella
University Jaume I
Castellón, Spain

P. Légeron
Unité de Thérapie Comportementale et Cognitive, Hôpital Sainte-Anne
Paris, France

and

G. Optale
Association of Medical Psychotherapists
Venice, Italy


Preface

Our observations suggest that working online is only suitable for therapists who have been specifically trained in the use of the powerful and yet challenging medium. As Internet usage continues to grow, and becomes integrated into our daily lives, newly trained therapists as well as experienced (f2f) therapists will increasingly seek to develop online practices. They will need to concentrate— through graduate training and also continuing education—on developing the skills and understanding which will promote “best practice” when engaging in online clinical work as a mental health professional.

Fenichel, Suler, Barak et al., 2002

Telehealth means “medicine at distance” where “medicine” includes not only medical activities - involving ill patients - but also public health activities - involving well people. In other words telehealth is a process and not a technology, including many different health care activities carried out at distance.

         Since the development of methods of electronic communication clinicians have been using information and communication technologies for the exchange of health-related information: Telegraphy - signaling by wires - telephony, radio and television has been used for distance medicine since mid 19th century. However, rapid and far-reaching technological advances are changing the ways in which people relate, communicate, and live. Technologies that were hardly used a few years ago, such as the Internet, e-mail, video teleconferencing and shared virtual reality are becoming familiar methods for modern communication.

         Health care is one of the areas that could be most dramatically reshaped by these new technologies. Distributed communication media could become a significant enabler of consumer health initiatives. In fact they provide an increasingly accessible communications channel for a growing segment of the population. Moreover, in comparison to traditional communication technologies, shared media offer greater interactivity and better tailoring of information to individual needs.

         Cybertherapy, the integration of and telehealth technologies with the Internet and shared virtual reality, is the next logical step. Although cybertherapy is a branch of telehealth, it is differentiated in several important ways: telehealth to date has been largely non-Internet based and has been characterized by point-to-point (e.g., T1) and dial-up (e.g., telephone, ISDN) information exchange. Cybertherapy, on the other hand, is more accessible due to its increasingly affordable ability to communicate through a common set of standards and across operating systems.

         In general, there are two reasons why cybertherapy is used: either because there is no alternative, or because it is in some sense better than traditional medicine. In this sense telehealth has been used very successfully for optimizing health services delivery to people who are isolated due to social and physical boundaries and limitations. Nevertheless, the benefits of cybertherapy, due to the variety of its applications and their uneven development, are not self-evident. However, the emergence of cybertherapy is supporting the cost-effectiveness of certain applications, such as assessment, rehabilitation and therapy in clinical psychology and neuroscience. Its key advantage is the possibility of share different media and different health care tools in a simple to use and easily accessible interface.

         To date, some cybertherapy applications have improved the quality of health care, and later they will probably lead to substantial cost savings. However, cybertherapy is not simply a technology but a complex technological and relational process. In this sense, clinicians and health care providers that want to successfully exploit cybertherapy need a significant attention to clinical issues, technology, ergonomics, human factors and organizational changes in the structure of the relevant health service.

Brenda Wiederhold, Ph.D. and Giuseppe Riva, Ph.D.

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Introduction

         The goal of this volume is to analyze the processes by which cybertherapy applications will contribute to the delivery of state-of-the-art health services. Particular attention is given to the clinical use of virtual reality technology. The starting point of this overview are the clinical results coming from the European Union VEPSY Updated - Telemedicine and Portable Virtual Environments for Clinical Psychology - research project (http://www.cybertherapy.info).