Virtual reality solutions have created an interesting turnaround in healthcare, much to the delight of both patients and doctors. In a nutshell, VR is a technology that enables users to utilize a VR headset in order to replicate an experience of interest inside an interactive yet computer-generated world. This immersive simulation rests on the use of special 3-D goggles with a screen and/or gloves that offer sensory input, which assists users in learning processes.
It offers a wide range of use in healthcare – from inventing novel life-saving procedures to educating and training doctors for future practices. Despite the fact that the technology is still in its early stages, there are several instances of VR having a beneficial impact on patients’ lives and doctors’ jobs.
In today’s article, we will discuss how VR helps teach and assist healthcare workers, as well as alter lives and heal patients.
Medical Practice and Training
Virtual reality is capable of taking you inside of a human body without a single cut of the skin and accessing the areas which are impossible to reach. Most of the time, medical students practice on cadavers, which are difficult to provide and do not behave like living patients. In virtual reality, however, it is possible to observe fine details of any part of the body area in 360-degree CGI reconstruction and build training situations that mimic typical surgical procedures.
A recent Harvard Business Review study showed that VR-trained surgeons demonstrated a 230% improvement in total performance as opposed to their colleagues with conventional training. It is a very convenient way of studying, much more reliable than peeking over the surgeon’s shoulder during an operation. With a virtual reality camera, surgeons may webcast procedures internationally and enable medical students to use VR goggles and be present during the whole procedure.
VR may be used to imitate any medical event, allowing students to experience it as if it were genuine. This is followed by feedback and debriefing, allowing them to learn from any errors they may have made. The low cost of VR devices and the fact that teacher presence is not necessary to make access more flexible and widespread.
Computer graphics have made it feasible to replicate any component of the human body with a high degree of accuracy. In addition, training may be provided via scenarios that closely resemble typical surgical settings.
Patient Treatment
Education
Virtual reality is beneficial for planning difficult surgeries in advance, such as neurosurgery procedures. It allows the surgical team to walk through the whole operation with the patient and practice the intervention that will be performed.
This increases safety by reducing unexpected events. Compilations of CT, MRI, and ultrasound scans are supplemented with virtual reality and haptics. In surgical settings, the reconstruction looks and feels like a genuine patient.
Relaxation
Many patients suffer from hospital anxiety, dreading the procedure, and pain that may possibly arise. They lay in beds, missing their family and friends, agitated to get out of bed. That’s where virtual reality in healthcare can come in handy!
A study conducted at St George’s Hospital in London shows that patients who used VR headsets that show calming landscapes during the surgical procedures felt less pain and anxiety.
Psychological therapy
Mental health patients with phobias and their therapists found VR to be quite beneficial. To treat clients with agoraphobia or acrophobia, for instance, a similar circumstance may be re-created in the therapist’s own center in order to assist the client in confronting it gradually. Similarly, this is true with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Consequently, VR provides the practical advantages of on-site coaching, with increasing exposure treatment enhanced by the real sensory experience of the trigger circumstance.
This is combined with the privacy and comfort of a treatment facility at far reduced expenses in terms of time, travel, and fatigue. It may be repeated in increasing order of difficulty as needed.
Individual practices
Damaged binocular vision is, unfortunately, a common occurrence in today’s world. We spend the majority of our time in front of different screens, not thinking about the consequences it can create.
As people are getting busier and busier, it is important to create an everyday solution that can replace the traditional synoptophore and allow people to train their binocular vision at home. That’s why we created the VR Synoptophore app – a smartphone solution that allows everyone to reduce the stress around the eyes and improves overall comfort and comfort.
Physiotherapy and rehabilitation
In physical treatment, virtual reality may also improve recovery periods by making patients’ activities simpler to do. This is due to the fact that VR diverts the patient’s attention away from the pain by offering a captivating alternate world that simultaneously captivates, motivates, and urges them to accomplish the task.
Thus, individuals recuperating from a stroke may be allowed to practice certain motions without risking additional injury from a fall. This will increase their confidence when it comes to navigating their actual environment.
Medical Marketing
Marketing has a crucial role in contemporary medicine. Virtual reality in healthcare makes it possible for doctors to share their knowledge with patients. It also increases awareness of the disease and potential interventions, as well as enhances the communication between patients and doctors.
Another astonishing thing is that VR can improve empathy amongst people, a number one skill doctors need to have. Experiencing conditions such as elderliness and migraines are now possible in virtual environments, with no psychical pain involved.
For example, GSK created a marketing campaign that relies on presenting migraine conditions to people who don’t suffer from them. Headsets simulate certain symptoms, including blind spots, auras, light sensitivity, pounding headache, and confusion, allowing non-sufferers to understand the overall condition better.
What is the Future of Virtual Reality in Healthcare?
There are several ways in which virtual reality is transforming the healthcare experience for both patients and medical practitioners. As the price of the technology decreases, more people will accept it, while more immersive technologies will come to the forefront.
In the following years, VR will be increasingly used to enhance the precision and efficacy of present procedures, as well as to expand the capacities of both the caregiver and the patient.
We can expect to see ways of increasing the safety and effectiveness of surgical operations, particularly those that are minimally invasive or non-invasive, and to better comprehend the complexities of the human body.
Simply said, virtual reality in healthcare has enormous potential, limited only by the inventiveness and skills of those developing and utilizing the technology.
