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Nearly one billion people worldwide suffer from some form of mental disorder, according to UN data, but relatively few can access the treatment they need. Innovative AI based therapy, developed by researchers at Oxford, is now enabling a greater number of people to get help.

Professor Daniel Freeman wearing the OxfordVR headset, standing outside the Sheldonian Theatre

Mental health services around the world face the same problem. Demand far outstrips the supply of trained professionals able to offer much-needed treatments.

OxfordVR was spun out of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford in 2016 to help address this shortage. Led by Professor Daniel Freeman, the OxfordVR team was convinced that virtual reality (VR) technology could provide the perfect way for mental health professionals to deliver treatments that extend to the homes of patients.

Proving this to be the case through its ground-breaking gameChange experiment, the largest VR mental health trial ever conducted, OxfordVR then merged with American company, BehaVR at the end of 2022. As the merger completed, the combined company raised $13 million to roll out a range of candidate treatments across the globe, beginning with the United States and the United Kingdom.

Read the full story on the University of Oxford website