Without a doubt, technology is improving at a rapid rate, making everyday human lives easier and better. Meeting the objectives in contemporary society is just a round the corner of a mouse or a touch screen. Out of the numerous revolutionary technologies witnessed to revolutionize industries across the globe, VR holds a rather unique place, with virtual reality showing its versatility for different fields, including healthcare.
Understand Healthcare Virtual Reality
Virtual reality is not an innovation in this modern world but has been implemented in healthcare to a greater extent due to technology. VR offers experiences that contribute positively to both physicians and patients by offering a platform on which they can learn much quicker.
For instance, the use of VR in teaching and training students and medical staff frankly complicates operations on patients without risks. It also supports the diagnosis of certain diseases through detailed visualisation of the patient characteristics, hence achieving higher diagnostic accuracy among doctors.
How is Virtual Reality Changing Healthcare?
Virtual reality is also known as a virtual environment and is defined as a computer-generated world. It has numerous uses in a variety of industries, including interior design, retail space, architecture and design, tourism & travel, education, and computer games.
When it comes to healthcare, VR is applying itself in a revolutionary manner, especially after COVID-19 pointed to what is achievable. VR is now an innovation that allows progress in medical education, treatment, and recovery.
Popular Use Cases of VR in Healthcare
Virtual reality has various uses in the practice of medicine as a form of technology and approach. Below are some key examples:
- Medical Training: VR brings cases for the practice and training of new medical procedures and management of different types of emergencies. Modern surveys show that an increasing number of famous hospitals and medical universities have integrated the application of VR-based tools into their training.
- Pain Management: VR works to help lessen chronic pain by beneficially occupying patients’ attention. It is especially beneficial for patients who are bedridden due to diseases or patients who cannot use pain medicines.
- Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation: VR helps patients to follow through with physical therapy exercises by eliminating pain focus by occupying the patients’ senses with visual and auditory input. Rehab is an effective implement in the healing process since it assists in the mobilization of patients and their muscles.
Benefits of VR in Healthcare
The benefits of virtual reality in healthcare are immense and continue to grow as technology evolves:
- Safe Environment for Learning: VR offers an avenue for doctors and medical students to perform delicate processes on the human body without endangering patients.
- Promotes Faster Recovery: In the case of long-term hospitalised patients, the use of VR reduces episodes of boredom and stress and contributes to an increased rate of recovery.
- Overcomes Phobias: It exposes the patients or professionals to situations and settings in which they need to deal with their fears or phobias in an accurate manner in VR.
- Distraction from Pain: By taking the patient’s attention away from the pain or discomfort they feel in their bodies, VR offers a way of diverting the patients in their interaction with technology. It is particularly helpful to children in procedures such as injections or tests where they are required to donate blood.
- Cost-Effective and Time-Saving: When compared with traditional approaches, VR solutions are usually less expensive and more time-efficient, as they provide effective and easily replicated training and therapy sessions.
Use of VR in Healthcare
The applications of virtual reality in healthcare are extensive, including the following key areas:
1. Surgery
Haptic controllers are used in VR to allow the surgeon to simulate a procedure in a virtual environment before actually performing it. The software here guides the surgeon through the process and offers an opportunity to practice. Further, it is applied in a way that can help investors reduce their worries regarding the surgical procedures that they undergo.
2. Pain Management
An important application of pain management includes the use of VR, as it helps patients to focus away from the pain, is cheaper health-wise, and retards dependence on pain-relief medication.
3. Physical Therapy
In other cases, VR possesses recreational exercises that patients who require physical therapy can undertake with direction from the AI virtual trainers. These programs help in wearing off possible biases in exercising and in also observing the progress made by such patients.
4. Medical Education and Training
Virtual reality innovation improves the practice of medicine through the accurate modelling of real-life situations. By making diagnoses and treatments via virtual patients, students become more confident and competent in their practice.
5. Rehabilitation
It supports treatment through virtual therapies that are unique to the patient’s condition. Based on these programs, the mobility of and mental health of patients who are recovering from injuries or surgeries is enhanced.
Market Expansion of VR in Healthcare
According to market research, the virtual reality healthcare industry worldwide was worth $2.4 billion in 2018, and it is estimated to exceed $6.2 billion in 2026. Such exponential growth signifies the enhanced usage of VR solutions within the medical industry due to efficiency and economic merits.
Virtual Reality for Health Applications
The future of VR in healthcare is still virtually unlimited. Improvements should make the VR feel even more realistic and bring an ability to add such senses as touch and smell into the picture. Further, VR devices would possibly become cheaper and smaller, which would eliminate existing hurdles to adoption.
As it develops further, the technology is predicted to be at the center of effective individualized treatment and therapies for patients. This further strengthens its applicability to the healthcare sector through integration with other technologies, such as AI and ML.
