The so-called metaverse along with virtual reality are emerging technologies that can deliver quite a bit of healthcare.
For example, medical practitioners can test the effectiveness of new surgical methods in the metaverse before trying them on real patients. And as an extension of telehealth, medical professionals can use virtual reality to reach patients and examine them online.
What exactly is the metaverse? How does virtual reality work? What can they contribute to health care? And where will these technologies bring innovations in the years to come?
To get answers to these questions, we spoke with Pari Natarajan, CEO of Zinnov, a global management and consulting firm focused on digital transformation in the care sector. health.
Q. Please explain what the metaverse is. Why is the metaverse relevant to healthcare delivery organizations?
ONE. Think of the metaverse as the next version of the internet, allowing for the seamless convergence of real and virtual communities for people to work, play, trade or socialize. It acts as a catalyst for technologies like blockchain, IoT, and digital twins to harness their highest potential.
Metaverse holds the power to transform healthcare in a variety of ways. It enables seamless collaboration for employees across industries and geographies to share knowledge and collaborate. It will be very easy for healthcare professionals around the globe to assist in critical surgeries, using robotics and augmented reality technology.
In fact, neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins performed the organization’s first augmented reality surgery on living patients.
With the ability to blur the lines between the digital and physical worlds, the metaverse will help align more authentic, cohesive, and life-like experiences across the healthcare value chain for all parties. relate to.
Q. Please explain how virtual reality works and the use cases in healthcare.
ONE. Virtual reality improves the quality, accuracy, and outcomes of treatments in healthcare.
It improves overall surgical performance by 230% over traditional methods, according to clinically validated research at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. It reduces the occurrence of diagnostic errors through simulations and repetitive visualizations.
With its ability to simulate real-life situations, virtual reality can be an important tool for physical rehabilitation programs and help patients by mimicking physical movements. Not only physically, but it can also improve their cognitive recovery efforts.
Other use cases of virtual reality in the healthcare industry include patient and pain management, disease prevention, surgical planning, immersive training, telemedicine, surgery telemedicine and medical simulation.
Q. How can Metaverse and virtual reality aid surgery?
ONE. Metaverse and virtual reality allow surgeons to visualize and simulate surgical procedures. In fact, George Washington University has applied an advanced virtual reality tool to neurosurgery, where surgeons can virtually examine a patient’s brain and body before surgery.
This can be extremely beneficial to conduct training with realistic simulations. It also addresses the lack of in-person training labs, reduces conference travel costs, surgical equipment, and creates an immersive hands-on learning experience.
It also reduces surgery time by allowing surgeons to plan surgical procedures before the procedure. The associated risks are also minimized through the force feedback mechanism.
Surgery using such technologies is also performed by surgeon-controlled robotic devices (present in a remote location), which improves procedure accuracy and reduce associated risks and complications.
Q. What role can virtual reality play in telehealth?
ONE. The pandemic makes it clear that telehealth is here to stay, and that virtual reality will only serve to develop space.
Patient rehabilitation is an area where virtual reality will play an important role. With real-time input, after receiving patient consent, healthcare providers will be able to recommend instant and personalized solutions through monitoring patient improved. This will also be useful for elderly care where ongoing support is needed.
Telehealth has made quality healthcare accessible. Virtual reality will improve the quality of remote consultations as previously virtual sessions/video calls become closer to reality. Healthcare professionals will be able to view patients as a 3-D avatar, examining and treating them more precisely.
This will also create an improved experience for both patients and healthcare professionals, while enhancing the human element through the process.
Q. Looking ahead, what innovations do you think the metaverse or virtual reality could drive in the coming years in healthcare?
ONE. Virtual reality enables the delivery of vastly improved experience services on a large scale in the healthcare sector. It will create a deeper reality for patients, providers/partners and healthcare staff and engage them holistically with all their senses. Additional hardware such as virtual reality headsets will become more accessible from a cost and availability standpoint.
The growing adoption of digital twins in the medical technology space will enable deep learning and patient insights to be enhanced by analyzing large volumes of data and representing them in an intuitive way. Intuitive way to deliver more targeted and precise solutions.
Metaverse also makes it possible for healthcare industry stakeholders to use digital twins as a testbed for future technologies, predicting patient recovery cycles, and treatment response.
Follow Bill’s HIT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki
Email the writer: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
