While they are similar technologies, both AR/VR have differentiating attributes. What can’t be denied is that Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are emerging technologies making a huge impact into various industries as we speak.
AR/VR is making its presence felt in the gaming and entertainment industries through the use of headsets to offer immersive experiences for users, giving them something that’s as close to reality as possible. At this juncture, the healthcare industry is also actively adopting these technologies along with cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence to deliver improved business results.
In fact, businesses availing healthcare app development services are making a conscious effort to integrate them into their app solutions, for enabling seamless delivery and hassle-free treatment procedures.
In this post, we will try to explain how AR/VR are completely changing the healthcare industry landscape with their potential, prowess, and promise.
AR/VR and How They are Changing Healthcare for the Better
The healthcare industry faces a lot of challenges, simply because of the complex nature and the highest stakes where errors could also prove to be fatal. It’s also one of the biggest reasons why there has been increased affinity towards emerging technologies for better diagnosis, access, as well as surgery.
One of the biggest bottlenecks in healthcare is the high demand for healthcare professionals and their comparatively short supply. Travel and logistics is another issue for a lot of people living in remote and difficult to access areas, where travelling to get the right care and treatment becomes a tough job.
These two major issues, combined with many smaller ones, encompass all the more reasons why technologies such as AR/VR are being increasingly preferred for superlative healthcare.
Here are some of the major ways AR/VR are disrupting this industry.
- Better Psychological Help and Treatment
Virtual reality solutions offer a promising solution for the treatment of psychological problems. With VR, healthcare has opened up new opportunities for consultation with counsellors and therapists. For patients, a virtual environment offers a wonderful opportunity to improve and manage their pain, align their sleeping habits properly, as well as reduce recovery times significantly.
AR/VR can be used to develop simulations for the identification of disease patterns to further craft treatment plans that deliver quantifiable results. VR has also emerged as a new way of treating patients with PTSD.
- Better Patient Experiences
When it comes to saving a life, patient experience is the least of anybody’s concern. This is a big reason why this aspect is often the most overlooked one as well. By using AR/VR though, the patient experience is bound to change for all the right reasons.
Partnering with firms offering AR app development services can help businesses in developing a product with features such as interactive 3D visualizations of anatomy, virtual reality simulations for surgical training, and augmented reality overlays for real-time patient monitoring. These technologies can significantly enhance patient understanding and engagement by providing clearer, more accessible explanations of medical conditions and treatments.
- Improved Diagnostic Capabilities
Diagnostics is a very crucial field in the overall scheme of healthcare, as the course of a patient’s treatment largely rests on it. The efficiency of results during diagnosis paves way to the accuracy of treatment that will be administered to the patient.
The patient’s stats can also be monitored on a visual interface, helping medical professionals make a more accurate diagnosis. HoloLens, an AR device by Microsoft, is the best example, where it helps doctors run various checks and simulations by using live patient data.
- Data Visualization and Mapping
Patient data that is easily accessible and consistent is a very important element in treating any disorder. However, presenting that data in an easy-to-understand manner for doctors and nurses is where the secret lies. As far as the right results go, data visualization is absolutely crucial.
This is where AR is a great technology for visualizing important patient data and information, where various types of statistics can be easily displayed on the patient’s body. AR can also be used to map a patient’s body in case a doctor is not physically present to examine a patient.
- Assistance with Surgery
Surgery is another important element in the overall healthcare industry. AR/VR technologies can help in preparing the surgeons by offering them effective and accurate data visualizations. It is not just helpful only before the surgery is done, but during the surgery process to monitor the progress of surgery as well.
AR and VR solutions can also be used for training new surgeons, where simulations can be created for surgeons to experiment with, as well as live surgery to deliver better outcomes through learning.
Final Words
There’s no doubt that both Augmented and Virtual Reality technologies fall under the category of emerging technologies. They are on their way to transform multiple industries, and healthcare is one of the major ones. As more time goes by, it won’t be an overstatement to say that more use cases of AR and VR will come up.
The best thing about AR/VR technologies is that when they are used across any industrial sector, they can deliver brilliant results without any doubt.