PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leading digital health company Provata Health announced the launch of Provata VR, a virtual reality (VR) guided meditation app available on the App Store. The app signifies the Portland startup’s aim to pioneer a new category of digital health: Virtual Reality Preventive Care.
With Provata VR, users escape to a variety of stunning locations around the world, including tropical waterfalls, secluded beaches, dazzling Northern Lights and even underwater coral reefs. Selecting from a collection of guided meditation exercises, users train their mind to positively impact their productivity and mood in immersive, idyllic settings.
The app also introduces meditation biofeedback, a patent-pending system that leverages advances in physiological monitoring to enhance the meditation experience. Users can sync popular wearable devices, such as Apple Watch, to visualize the effects of their meditation sessions on their heart rate. Through smart feedback, Provata VR helps users better understand which meditation exercises, locations, and times of day have the greatest impact on their heart rate.
“Virtual Reality presents an opportunity to expand digital health to new frontiers,” said Alex Goldberg, CEO of Provata Health. “The typical guided meditation approach—an audio recording instructing you how to meditate—hasn’t advanced much technologically in decades. Combining VR with mindfulness meditation and biofeedback monitoring lets users transport themselves to relaxing environments while seamlessly tracking their progress, bringing new dimensions to the meditation experience.”
As mindfulness meditation grows in popularity, scientific research reveals its benefits are widespread, including increased productivity, lower stress, as well as improved focus, cognitive skills and memory. The effects extend to physiological measures as studies indicate that meditation can help to lower risk of strokes and heart attacks. Studies suggest mindfulness meditation may even alleviate chronic pain by activating brain regions associated with pain control.
Provata Health provides the first commercial digital health program proven to improve both the physical and mental health of participants in a peer-reviewed medical journal. “Given the mounting evidence of the positive effects of meditation on our mental and physical health, Provata VR truly embodies our emphasis on providing holistic digital health solutions that address our total health,” Goldberg explained.
Currently the fastest-growing private tech and healthcare company in Oregon, Provata Health partners with employers, health plans, and hospital systems to provide evidence-based programs proven to improve the health of employees and lower medical costs. Provata VR marks the company’s first product available to both employers and consumers alike.
Anyone can download the app for free and upgrade to the premium version, which will be available at no cost to employees participating in Provata digital health programs through their employer or health plan.
Provata VR is now available on the App Store! To learn more, visit Provatahealth.com/vr-health
