Pain is the unpleasant sensation and emotional experience that leads to poor quality of life for millions of people worldwide. Considering the complexity in understanding the principles of pain and its significant impact on individuals and society, research focuses on delivering innovative pain relief methods and techniques. This review explores the clinical uses of machine learning (ML) for the diagnosis, classification, and management of pain. A systematic review of the current literature was conducted using the PubMed database library. Twenty-six papers related to pain and ML research were included. Most of the studies used ML for effectively classifying the patients’ level of pain, followed by use of ML for the prediction of manifestation of pain and for pain management. A less common reason for performing ML analysis was for the diagnosis of pain. The different approaches are thoroughly discussed. ML is increasingly used in pain medicine and appears to be more effective compared to traditional statistical approaches in the diagnosis, classification, and management of pain.

Virtual Reality is a computer-simulated 3-Dimensional technology in which the user interacts via different senses: visual, auditory, tactile, and/or olfactory. In the past decades, it has been argued that Virtual Reality as a technique could be applied in the clinical environment to successfully manage pain. This article provides a systematic review of research on Virtual Reality and pain management for patients who are suffering from cancer. More specifically, this article focuses on all types of Virtual Reality technologies (Non-Immersive, Semi-Immersive, Fully-Immersive) which have been developed and released to manage the pain which evokes from the treatment of cancer. An exhaustive search identified 23 relevant studies from 2010 to 2020. Overall, the identified studies indicated that Virtual Reality could improve the experience of pain for patients who are suffering from cancer. It was also found that, if Virtual Reality is appropriately designed, the pain which is arising from cancer treatments can be reduced. Even though some positive outcomes have been reported, overall, the results are inconclusive and studies that examine specifically the treatment of pain in cancer patients are limited. Further research needs to be conducted, to articulate clearly, under what circumstances Virtual Reality is an effective tool for cancer patients, and under what factors Virtual Reality can be the solution to the pain patients are experiencing.

Recent advancements in Virtual Reality (VR) immersive technologies provide new tools for the development of novel and promising applications for neurological rehabilitation. The purpose of this paper is to review the emerging VR applications developed for the evaluation and treatment of patients with neurological diseases. We start by discussing the impact of novel VR tasks that encourage and facilitate the patient’s empowerment and involvement in the rehabilitation process.  Furthermore, a methodology to assist in the development of VR applications is introduced based on the system analysis and design paradigm.  This allows defining the systematic requirements, design, and implementation of a VR application, thus facilitating the proper selection of VR hardware and software.  A systematic review was carried out on six well known electronic libraries using the terms: ‘Virtual Reality AND Neurorehabilitation’, or ‘Head Mounted Display AND Neurorehabilitation’.  This review focused on fully immersive VR systems for which 12 relevant studies published in the time span of the last five years (from 2014 to 2019) were identified.  Overall, this review paper examined the use of VR in certain neurological conditions such as dementia, stroke, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. Most of the studies reveal positive results suggesting that VR is a feasible and effective tool in the treatment of neurological disorders. In addition, the finding of this systematic literature review suggested that low cost, immersive VR technologies can prove to be effective for clinical rehabilitation in healthcare and home-based settings with practical implications and uses. The development of VR technologies in recent years has resulted in more accessible and affordable solutions that can still provide promising results. Concluding, VR and interactive devices resulted in the development of holistic, portable, accessible, and usable systems for certain neurological disease interventions.  It is expected that emerging VR technologies and tools will further facilitate the development of state-of-the-art applications in the future, exerting a significant impact on the wellbeing of the patient.