VR or virtual reality is a replication of experiences that can be completely the same to reality or completely different from the real world.
VR can get applicable to a variety of purposes such as education, medical, and military training.
Other types of VR style technology include augmented reality, mixed reality, and which is also sometimes referred to as XR or extended reality.
VR in healthcare
Distance learning in the healthcare industry is also the need for an hour in this pandemic.
Working remotely gets boosted as every work and industry is trying to transform and produce the things where the tasks get done without any actual physical visits.
Remote work is the forced thing which got implemented in any organization and company to further prevent the spread of the virus.
Any methods of teachings and training that can get available to the humans remotely are likely to get more popularity and also the investors are willing to invest more in such things whether it is education, finance, or healthcare.
VR tools are the kind of tools that have been raising huge investments and millions of dollars rapidly.
Investing Model
Palo Alto is one of the VR distribution platforms which is based in California which joins the high revenue pool of this industry by making $14 million in its overall finance.
The company was able to make this money because of the bunch of investors that agreed to make an investment in their firm.
Also, the company received huge help from the healthcare giant – Kaiser Permanente who manages and controls the care facilities and services across the country.
Along with this business giant, several others made an investment in the company as previous backers, investors, OCA ventures also got involved in its funding.
Osso, the leading VR platform even under this pandemic achieved skyrocketing results.
As the medical product manufacturers and healthcare networks procured VR services from the company that does not require any trainer or technical expert to explain all the technicalities in handling a VR device.
According to the founder of the company Dr. Justin Barad once stated that the market for education training on medical devices is presently around $3 billion and $5 billion which is flourishing at a rapid rate.
Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Apple, and Osso VR delivers educational content and articles for its training and then further produces a customized product of VR educational videos for several companies.
Such products can provide a wide range from instructional videos about the surgeries to tips and tricks for robotic surgery training tips and tricks.
Ways medical VR is changing the healthcare industry
VR began with its journey by stepping into the healthcare industry where patients and doctors both get satisfied.
Further, we will discuss 5 examples of medical VR and the way it changed the lives of patients along with the lives of doctors.
Watching surgery as if you performed one
- The first VR surgery was conducted by Shanofi Ahmed a surgeon in the year 2016 which is available online and which can be watched by anyone.VR further facilitates viewing surgery from the point of view of the surgeon.
- The technology is further used to train aspiring surgeons and doctors with practical knowledge of the actual theory.
- This method of teaching appeared and proved itself better than any other traditional method of teaching.
Relaxing patients with medical VR
- Getting hospitalized for something appears a curse. You have nothing to do nor you can meet your family and friends.
- The anxiety and stress level of an individual rises as they keep on thinking what procedure will appear next.
- VR appears the perfect solution to help every patient and provide them less anxiety.
- VR also helps the pregnant ladies to get rid of their labour pain as it suggests the feasible solution and approach to perform a normal delivery without thinking of undergoing a painful experience.
- Even it has shown a decline in the patient’s health issues such as gastrointestinal, Cardiac and neurological pain when they were shown VR to distract them from surgical pain which they just underwent.
Real conferences with VR for enhanced experience
- Medical conferences are boring and monotonous where presentations are too long and tedious without any interesting images.
- In such cases VR can be used to provide a smooth and immersive experience.
- A health professional once delivered his whole lecture on VR and where he also presented his slides on VR at the annual virtual medical conference.
- Even the thought of attending such a conference appears interesting then think about being an attendee for once in such an exciting conference.
- With all the possibilities that VR delivers such a boring conference can get more exciting along with skyrocketing results.
Helping Physicians experience the lives of elderly.
- The problems and joint pains that the elderly people suffer, young adults can not even think of.
- Not able to lift an arm, pain in joints and the list goes on of what they actually suffer.
- Through the help of VR, the medical students and aspiring doctors can actually feel that pain and such things will further enhance their skills and expertise over a particular subject.
Speed up recovery in their physical therapy
- For patients who just underwent a stroke or brain injury time plays a pivotal role there.
- As soon as they start their rehabilitation they have more appropriate chances to get back to their original health and mental condition.
- Games are the most preferred way of approach to any physical therapy for all the patients who fall under the above mentioned category.
- Entering into collaborations with healthcare professionals. The companies dealing in VR and machine learning match the needs of the patient and their therapies keeps the patients more engaged.
Summing up
Here we discussed the use of VR in healthcare and how it is changing the industry with such a high pace.
Healthcare professionals along with patients are enjoying and experiencing the change that occurs due to VR in the overall healthcare sector.
The popularity will gradually rise as VR will be more affordable and pocket-friendly.
VR headsets are getting much cheaper as they are available at a price of $5.
For more and frequent use of VR in healthcare the overall healthcare sector needs to change their rules and regulations along with a change in their work ethics.
Patients and professionals need to use the technology more frequently to get the better user experience of this technology.
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