The concept Chan came up with is called Smileyscope. In a clinical trial published in the Journal of Pediatrics in 2019, she and her coauthors found that 252 children aged four to eleven who used Smileyscope in emergency rooms and outpatient labs experienced a 60 percent decrease in needle pain, 75 percent decrease in distress, and 50 percent decrease in the need for restraints. Smileyscope is now being used in hospitals in the United States and Australia, where kids who use the headset experience an underwater animation complete with fish and dolphins as a voiceover explains their procedure.
