Virtual Reality in Healthcare

Maleaka B
5 min readJul 5, 2021

Virtual Reality (BP), a new technological advance, must transform healthcare practices. According to Statista, it is estimated that by 2022, the second-largest share of the BP market will be in healthcare. Virtual reality in the field of health care operates in various departments to offer better quality patient care and efficiency of health professionals. For healthcare and healthcare, from the clinical process to the user, VR has many programs, such as training future doctors, creating new lifesavers, and more.

Virtual healthcare realities can meet the challenges of the industry, including working effectively with vast databases on healthcare, health education and development, patient engagement, disease awareness, medical marketing, patient care, and more. Virtual reality in the healthcare market, according to the Reports and Data Report, is expected to reach $ 8.03 billion by 2027, up from $ 2.06 billion in 2019.

This article discusses how healthcare virtual reality will transform the industry by applying it in a variety of settings, such as health education, patient care, patient engagement, disease awareness, and medical marketing.

Virtual Reality in Healthcare Training

Healthcare virtual reality can take you to areas within the human body that would otherwise be inaccessible and inaccessible. Medical students are currently used to study corpses, but corpses do not respond as living patients do. In addition, corpses are very difficult to reach. When VR is used in health education, students can view even the smallest details of all parts of the body. This view is possible with the stunning 360 ° reconstruction of CGI and creates training scenarios that would replicate real surgical procedures.

Virtual reality in healthcare can be used to provide quality surgical training. Using virtual reality, 4K 360 ° video of real surgery is filmed from different angles. It is then combined with CGI models of the anatomy being operated on. This enhanced use of virtual reality in healthcare provides medical students with an interactive and exciting learning experience.

Treatment
Patient education
The ability of virtual reality in healthcare to see inside the human body is useful for both physicians and patients. With the help of virtual reality, doctors can guide patients through their surgical plan. This is possible thanks to a virtual view of the anatomy and pathology of the patients through a patient-specific 360 ° VR reconstruction. The result of this is a better understanding of treatment for patients and greater patient satisfaction.

Robotic surgery
Robotic surgery is a recent innovation. A robotic device, such as a robotic arm, is used in robotic surgery while being controlled by a human surgeon. This use of virtual reality in health care ensures a lower or no risk of complications in surgeries. This also makes the surgeon complete the surgical procedure faster and with greater precision. Robotic devices are accurate with reduced blood loss, smaller incisions, and faster recovery.

Mental health and psychological therapy
The unique ability of virtual reality technology to take you virtually anywhere can be used to create a powerful virtual reality health care simulation of various scenarios where psychological problems occur. This eliminates the need for a therapist to accompany patients to various settings, such as a tall building or a crowded shopping mall, to provide appropriate counseling. These scenarios can be easily created with virtual reality technology in healthcare. Virtual reality in the healthcare market has also been used to help autistic children in the classroom, curb memory loss, and collect data for dementia research.

Pain management and physical therapy
In addition to psychological problems, the healing capabilities of virtual reality are also used in pain management and physical treatment. According to a study conducted by the UW Harborview Burn Center and the University of Washington Seattle, full immersion in virtual reality acted as a distraction for patients undergoing physical therapy after a skin graft. This distraction subsequently reduced her sense of pain.

Virtual reality in healthcare is also effective in reducing recovery time in physical therapy. Patients who perform their daily exercises in a virtual environment find the task more fun than usual. It also keeps patients focused and helps them keep their spirits up and recover sooner.

Patient commitment
With the help of virtual reality in healthcare, patients can experience a virtual tour of the inside of their bodies prior to surgeries. This is a 360-degree three-dimensional (3D) tour. This allows patients to understand their body, anatomy, and pathology prior to surgical procedures. The virtual reality medical visualization platform is built for the tour.

These advancements with virtual reality in healthcare engage patients thoroughly, reducing stress and leading to rapid recovery.

Medical marketing
The most popular and early application of virtual reality was marketing. Still, it is still one of the most effective and powerful marketing tools. The ability to use virtual reality to project the future of healthcare is the most powerful tactic in healthcare marketing. With VR in healthcare, one of the most powerful tactics you can have to market to the industry is to show people what changes to expect when they start or stop exercising, lose or gain weight, the progress they make. through cancer treatments, etc.

Because the possibilities for virtual reality in healthcare are endless, healthcare professionals and providers can attract more patients, senior physicians, and nurses to their facilities. When they are in short supply, virtual reality in healthcare can be used as an excellent healthcare marketing tool to ensure expected results.

Disease awareness
AbbVie, a pharmaceutical research and development company, created an experience to educate medical professionals and raise awareness among them about the daily struggle that Parkinson’s disease patients face. The experience was demonstrated at a fair for the pharmaceutical industry. People put on headphones and experienced how Parkinson’s sufferers navigate a virtual supermarket, encountering difficult moments when they come into contact with other people.

These experiences with virtual reality in the healthcare field help to sensitize professionals and patients about various diseases. Virtual reality presentations can be made to raise awareness of certain diseases.

The future of virtual reality in healthcare
Many applications of virtual reality in healthcare are in their infancy. In the coming years, virtual reality will be used more in healthcare, improving the efficiency and precision of current procedures. It will also enhance diverse human capabilities, for both patients and medical professionals. Virtual reality in healthcare has enormous potential, but it is only limited by the ingenuity and creativity of the people who create and apply the technology. Virtual reality will surely transform medical training, physical and psychological therapies, rehabilitation, mental health treatments, and patient participation, among others.

Virtual reality in healthcare has the power to transform the way physicians are trained and patients are treated. According to reports from various market research companies, especially research conducted by Grand View Research, they predict that, by 2025, virtual reality in the healthcare market will grow to a whopping $ 5.1 billion. The main driving forces behind this growth are rapid technological advances in the healthcare industry and the demand for rehabilitation and simulation training…read more

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Maleaka B

I’m Maleaka, passionate about blogging with 4 years of experience in B2B industry. Expertise in B2B services, strategies and products.