This story was updated at 9:45 a.m. Monday, Oct. 14, to clarify the number of people in the country who could benefit from palliative care.

Just because you're homebound doesn't mean you can't go to Italy.

Or Lake Erie, your childhood hometown, for a walk in the woods or virtually anywhere else your heart desires.

That's the premise behind a new Akron startup, Immersive Cure, which aims to bring virtual reality (VR) to hospices, senior living centers and nursing homes.

"I've deployed it more than 100 times now," said Jessica Benson, who added that before starting the company at the end of last year she was already an advocate of integrating virtual reality with health care by virtue of her past hospital volunteer work with children.

With her company, however, she's begun to focus on bringing VR to the elderly and the terminally ill, including area veterans.

"We are taking it to people in hospice, palliative care, to veterans' facilities, in-patient units and people's homes. Wherever the patient calls home, that's where we take it," Benson said.

The "it" is a backpack kit that Benson has named "RoVR!" It includes VR goggles that can accommodate a user's glasses, a matching headset for sound, six programs offering relaxation scenarios or visits to favorite spots like the shores of Lake Erie, along with materials to clean the equipment between uses.

She's teamed up with Akron's New Territory, a startup focused on commercializing virtual and augmented reality for anything from marketing to health care. Benson and New Territory founder Bill Myers share space at Akron's Bounce Innovation Hub, where Myers already was set up when Benson found him.

Myers said he agreed to become Benson's chief technical officer in exchange for a minority stake in the company, in part because he was impressed by her ideas for applying VR and the people he realized she could help.

"The moment I saw something this meaningful to work on with Jessica I immediately said, 'Yeah, I need to go do that,' " Myers said. "And it has a lot of pieces from things I've worked on in the past ... like being able to shoot something on the fly and quickly get it into a headset for patients."

So far, Immersive Cure consists of Benson, Myers, two outside developers and a marketing person that New Territory and Immersive Cure share. The company has a small investment from some local angel investors, Benson said, and will soon be presenting to other sources of capital, including the Northeast Ohio Student Venture Fund at the University of Akron.

Benson said she formed the company in practice late last year. Then, in March, she met Myers and formally formed Immersive Cure as an LLC.

Among the first seniors who first tried Immersive Cure's VR was Benson's own mother-in-law, who was terminally ill before passing away this past August, she said.

Benson's first sale came this summer, when Sandusky-based Stein Hospice completed its evaluation of the system — including working with Benson to let patients try it out — and then purchased four of the units.

Stein community and veterans coordinator Sherri Bourne said once company CEO Jan Bucholz and chief operating officer Tamara Zuilhof saw the system, they spearheaded efforts to raise funds specifically so the nonprofit hospice could purchase the units. Those asked to contribute also quickly saw the value of VR in demonstrations, which made raising the funds easier, she said.

The hospice has 18 in-patient beds as well as hundreds of patients spread across a five-county area. They're in private homes, senior living centers, nursing homes and hospitals, according to Bourne.

"We go wherever the patient is," she said.

That made Benson's VR system particularly attractive, Bourne noted, because with its RoVR! backpack it's easy for hospice staff to take it on the road to share with patients and their other caregivers.

It may not be a medical device, per se, but it's definitely helping to improve patients' quality of life, said Bourne, who predicted VR therapy will one day be covered by insurance programs like Medicare.

"We try to bring much support, not only medically but spiritually, including comfort care … and where we think VR comes in is with that comfort care," Bourne said.

Hospice patients are often dealing with chronic pain and a lot of anxiety, she said, but you can see some of that lifted from them when they put on the VR goggles and headset.

"It's interesting to watch someone in it," Bourne said. "You can see them become totally relaxed, to the point that their breathing actually changes. … If their hands are maybe up and tense, you can see their hands go to their side and they're very relaxed. It takes them to a different place than where they are, and that's the point."

Recently, Stein has been working with Benson to customize the experiences. In addition to things like a walk in the park or a visit to a beach, patients will be able to revisit their favorite places. Benson and Myers made a special program for a patient who asked if they could visit Kelleys Island one last time, which Immersive Cure worked up as a virtual tour of parts of the island.

Next, Benson said she's going to work on special content for veterans. Many veterans would love to see things like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and other structures built to honor them, but can't get to the nation's capital, she said.

As for the business model, Benson said she sells the RoVR! kits for $3,000. They come with a one-year license to six virtual-reality programs, though users can license more if they choose. She and Myers have created a dozen programs so far, but plan many more.

The company hopes to make money from subscribers licensing content, by adding new content for them to license and by signing up more users to expand the subscriber base.

They'll also create special-order VR programs customized to specific locations or patient groups for those who ask and are willing to license them, like the Kelleys Island experience, Benson said.

There's not a lot of competition out there yet, Benson noted. Bourne said Immersive Cure was the first VR program for seniors that she'd seen.

With only four units in use so far, Benson said she has a long way to go — but a lot of fertile ground ahead of her.

There are 4,400 hospices in the U.S. and 50 in Ohio, and about 6 million people could benefit from in palliative care in the U.S., Benson said, adding that there are also many more nursing homes, senior living centers and home caregivers.

Bourne predicted the concept will be a hit with other hospices and caregivers and said some have already contacted her to learn more after hearing that Stein was successfully using VR.

"Not long ago, I got a call from a hospice in Maine asking about this because they'd heard we were using it and wanted to learn more," Bourne said.

It's not just useful for patients either, she added. Caregivers, especially family members, can often suffer stress along with the people in their care. VR can give them a break and a source of relaxation.

She said she thinks the system practically sells itself to anyone who puts on the goggles, including her. She was skeptical before trying it, but no longer.

"Once people see it … it's a game- changer," Bourne said.