4 Ways the Healthcare Industry is Adapting Virtual Reality
While you may be accustomed to seeing the term Virtual Reality (VR) used in reference to headsets and gaming experiences, this technology is being adapted by the healthcare industry in innovative ways. Because VR offers an immersive and life-like experience, it has countless applications for learning and practicing skills. Here are some of the specific ways the healthcare industry is utilizing VR.
Treating Patients
When doctors and surgeons are planning for a patient to undergo complicated treatments, it’s a matter of course for the care team to do a trial run of the surgery, treatment, or intervention first. They’ll talk through each step of the process and discuss every possibility along the way. VR allows these professionals to do this walk-through in a way that eliminates surprises as much as possible. Using data compiled from the patient’s treatment up to that point, the surgery can be closely imitated and can offer sensory feedback that can be vitally important to helping the surgeon prepare.
There have also been strides in mental health treatments using VR for conditions involving phobias. The patient may have a phobia of heights, and using VR can help them get the exposure therapy they need without undue risk to their physical health. Technology that has been used for things as simple as mobile authentication now makes what could otherwise be an expensive, time-consuming, and possibly dangerous therapy a safe and inexpensive option.
Training Medical Students
No medical student on earth has ever had enough experience during medical school to fully prepare them for the situations they’ll face on the job. While it’s essential that students learn the information they need to diagnose illnesses, having hands-on experience learning to problem-solve and communicate is extremely important. Using VR, medical students can get that hands-on experience and have the opportunity to learn from mistakes without causing harm to patients. Students can operate independently in these simulations, making the process convenient and inexpensive.
In addition, VR makes another level of detailed learning possible for medical students. Computer renderings of human anatomy can let students see the inner workings of the human body in ways that were never possible before. Surgeons can now practice eliminating invasiveness from surgeries by practicing on VR cadavers, rather than having to utilize expensive and highly sought-after human cadavers. Having an entire medical school of students utilizing VR equipment may become expensive, but the results could make any expense worth it.
Managing Pain
Pain management is an extremely important indicator of success when patients are recovering from illnesses or injuries. Extremely painful parts of recovery, such as receiving skin grafts for severe burns, are hard to address since the pain tends to overwhelm any attempts at distraction. However, VR experiences offer a level of immersion that can cause patients to become successfully distracted and calm enough to recover more quickly.
Patients with extended hospital stays can often become anxious or depressed to a degree that seriously delays their recovery, and VR can be used to take their minds off the unpleasantness of their situations. VR can also be helpful in assisting with physical therapy, as pain is often a barrier to patients’ ability to successfully rehabilitate. Patients also have an opportunity to practice movements that they may be too frightened to attempt in real-time, helping them gain the confidence they need to progress.
Improving Empathy
Something many doctors struggle with when treating patients is the inability to put themselves in the patient’s shoes. If a doctor has never had a heart attack, they may not know how to help their patient recover in accurate ways. Elderly patients often feel unseen and misunderstood by doctors who don’t understand their situation. By participating in simulations of patients in different situations, doctors and medical students can improve their empathy and communication skills to offer better help to these patients.
Final Thoughts
The future of virtual reality in the healthcare industry is bright. It’s only a matter of time before the improvements seen in the medical field can be attributed to the use of VR in the classroom.
