Founded in 2015, AppliedVR is developing a digital health platform that utilizes therapeutic virtual reality to treat chronic- and acute-pain patients. The company was created by David Sackman (executive chairman and chief visionary officer), Matthew Stoudt (chief executive officer) and Josh Sackman (president). They came up with the idea while working at LRW, a global market-research firm. “While exploring new ways of collecting data and insights through virtual reality, we discovered over thirty years of academic research demonstrating the power of VR to impact attitudes, behaviors and health outcomes,” says Josh. 

AppliedVR spun off of LRW to apply what the founders had learned about VR and behavior change to develop VR-based healthcare solutions. To validate these solutions, Josh and his cofounders teamed up with healthcare practitioners and academics and ran research trials at Cedars-Sinai, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, George Washington University and the Mayo Clinic. With the message of “transforming healthcare through the power of pixels,” AppliedVR now offers a digital library of clinically validated, immersive and interactive experiences. Along with what Josh calls a “new treatment modality,” AppliedVR is also working on the delivery of VR therapeutics prescriptions via the world’s first VR Pharmacy. “We envision a world where patients access these next-generation digital therapeutics in the hospital, at home or in the clinic,” he says.

To fund the company initially, AppliedVR participated in the Techstars Cedars-Sinai Healthcare Accelerator in 2016. The accelerator provided some early success, which allowed AppliedVR to since raise a seed round as well as a Series A round.