Frost & Sullivan predicted that, within four years, nearly half of all operating rooms will implement forms of artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR). VR is already being used as a tool to help anxious patients – hospitals like Spectrum Health Lakeland in St. Joseph, MI, are using VR to calm patients undergoing chemotherapy – but beneath user benefits for patients, VR can provide an essential resource for the healthcare industry: data.
Companies are already seizing upon the data-rich aspect of VR to gain insights for their employee training processes, but for doctors, VR can provide a wealth of patient information—information that can otherwise be difficult to obtain and monitor. XR Health, a certified medical XR company, advertises its services as a comprehensive solution for both doctors and patients alike with FDA/CE registered medical applications that can help assess and treat. XR health even offers in-home services, meaning that even at-home caregivers like parents and nurses can access user data.
The National Centre for Biotechnology Information has conducted numerous studies to analyse the impact VR can have on patient rehabilitation, including VR with motor learning principles and VR with chronic pain management. Bejoy Daniel, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, had these words to say on the promising future of VR in the healthcare industry: “Data interoperability will help analyze past and present data to predict future health outcomes and patient wellness index for optimum use of resources. The shift in favor of data and algorithms will fuel the algorithmic business and endow businesses with a competitive edge.”
The applications of XR in the healthcare field are ever-present in multiple disciplines. 3E Insider Roy Kachur detailed the myriad of training and therapeutic solutions that VR provides, and the VR surgical training platform Osso VR recently reached 1,000 monthly users performing simulations that are used by teaching hospitals such as Brown University, the University of Hawaii, and UCLA.
