Updated 16 August 2026.
When an institution considers adopting virtual reality for clinical use, the first question is usually "how much does it cost?". It is the wrong question to start with, or at least half a question. The price of the service is the easiest and most visible part of the sum.
This page is the starting point for the topic: what goes into the cost, where the return sits in each setting, and what cannot be proven. Each section points to the article that develops it. Annual cost set against the level of published evidence is on Annual cost vs evidence.
First: there is no single sum, there are three
The most common mistake is applying a hospital's arithmetic to a house that is not a hospital. The levers differ, and some simply do not exist:
| Setting | What dominates the sum | Where to go deeper |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital and clinic | procedure time, sedation, missed appointments | where the saving is |
| Care home | occupancy, staff time per activity | what it returns in a care home |
| Either one | what the economic evidence supports | the ROI nobody can prove |
A care home has no theatre and no sedation to avoid. A hospital does not fix bed occupancy with an activity. Starting from the right sum saves half a meeting.
The total cost, line by line
The price of the service, headsets included, is the line everyone sees. The other four decide whether the service pays for itself:
- Staff time. The largest of them all and the most forgotten. A session is about five minutes to choose and fit the headset, plus the session itself. Multiplied by your team's real hourly cost, that is the recurring cost that counts.
- Hygiene between uses. A short routine, but it exists and it takes minutes. It is described in equipment hygiene and safety.
- Initial training. How long until the team is operational without supervision. If it is long, the equipment ends up in a cupboard.
- Space and logistics. Where it lives, who prepares it, how it moves between floors or services.
The more friction at each of these points, the higher the real cost, whatever the invoice says.
The return is measured in use, not in the contract
A service contracted and rarely used returns zero, however good the technology. Which is why the metric that best predicts the value of an installation is the simplest one: sessions delivered per week.
Anything that adds friction (a missing cable, a password nobody knows, a hygiene routine that takes too long, depending on hospital Wi-Fi) cuts usage and, with it, the return. That is why the content lives on the headset and does not depend on the network.
What does not belong in the sum
Do not count on reduced medication, fewer falls or clinical improvement. There are no trials supporting those lines for our product, and putting them in a tender builds a case that does not survive the first hard question.
The economic literature on virtual reality in healthcare is thin: of the 130 studies in our public library (October 2026), eight are about cost and return, all from very specific contexts. Why their numbers are not yours is explained in “The ROI nobody can prove”.
How to prove it in the first service
A three-month pilot answers better than any brochure, as long as you decide beforehand what you are going to count. Four metrics are enough: sessions delivered, who took part who did not before, real staff time per session, and refusals or interruptions.
None is clinical, deliberately. A pilot answers implementation questions and does not answer efficacy. How to design one is in how to run a pilot, and how to write requirements without asking for things that do not exist is in “The tender document”.
And if the budget does not stretch this year
RVer is an annual service: it sits in the operating budget and needs no upfront investment. The routes (cooperation agreements, corporate giving, foundation awards, municipal councils) are in How to fund and procure, and the options (operating budget, grants, alternatives to investment) are in how to fund it.
In short
| If you are… | Start with |
|---|---|
| A hospital or clinic | the four savings levers |
| A care home | the occupancy sum |
| Going to tender | the tender document |
| Justifying it to management | the three-month pilot |
Nothing on this page is an efficacy claim. The Class I medical device registration (EUDAMED and INFARMED) covers the base product and concerns regulatory conformity, not clinical performance. Decisions about the care plan always belong to the clinical team.
RVer is a virtual reality system for clinical use designed for healthcare settings, whose base product is registered as a Class I Medical Device in EUDAMED (Basic UDI-DI 56006195127RVERTZ) and with INFARMED (Portugal, CDM 94571546) and bears the CE mark under MDR 2017/745. The RVer Motion, RVer Neuro and RVer Exposure modules are in development and are not covered by that registration.
Frequently asked questions
How do you assess the return on a virtual reality investment in healthcare?
Start from the setting, because the levers change: in a hospital, procedure time, sedation and missed appointments count; in a care home it is mostly occupancy and staff time per activity. In either case, the metric that best predicts value is the number of sessions delivered per week: equipment that is rarely used returns zero.
Is the cost only the price of the service?
No. Beyond the price of the service there are four recurring lines: staff time per session (the largest), hygiene between uses, initial training, and space and logistics. The more friction at each, the higher the real cost, whatever the invoice says.
Can I count on savings in medication or fewer falls?
No. There are no trials supporting those lines for our product. In October 2026, of the 130 studies in our public library, eight are about cost and return, all from very specific contexts. Presenting clinical savings in a tender builds a case that does not survive the first hard question.
How do you stop the equipment becoming a cost with no return?
By cutting the friction of use and by measuring. The content lives on the headset and does not depend on the network, the hygiene routine is short, and a three-month pilot with four metrics (sessions delivered, who started taking part, real staff time and refusals) shows quickly whether it entered the routine.
What if there is no budget this year?
RVer is an annual service and needs no upfront investment. The routes (operating budget, cooperation agreements, corporate giving, foundation awards, municipal councils) are on the How to fund and procure page. It is worth understanding the options before assuming the project waits another year.