A Taste of Hollywood for the Trust!

An exciting project at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust has resulted in staff and patients becoming Hollywood movie stars in a film which shows how the Trust is pioneering the use of a popular computer games machine to help patients.

The Trust's In-patient Therapies was turned into a film set while staff from the department and some of their patients showed how the X-Box Kinect console is being used to assist people recovering from conditions including strokes.

Occupational Therapy staff have been working closely with colleagues from the Trust’s Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering departments on a pilot scheme which has looked at how the games machine can be used to help patients - and also which games are most popular and useful with the patients.

But when computer software giants Microsoft heard about the trial they immediately sent a Hollywood film crew to interview the teams and some of the patients involved in the project for a special feature on the worldwide Microsoft website.

Staff at the Royal Berks say that so far they are delighted at the results of their trial project. With a price tag of around £200, the games machines provide an extremely cost-effective way of delivering therapy treatment, staff say they can easily plot the progress being made by patients - and the patients themselves say they are encouraged to keep up their therapy because it is enjoyable.

It is hoped that the worldwide attention will lead to Trust staff playing a key role in helping develop future products for clinical purposes.

 Play the video (the third on the Microsoft site).