Technology is evolving. Right from first supercomputer to Virtual Reality, it has shaped everything around it beautifully even the health industry. These technologies have revolutionized many industries worldwide. Be it gaming industry, teaching profession or healthcare industry, every one of them is getting benefit out of it.
According to Mechasparrow, “Today, the three-dimensional simulation allows users in all industries to experience a real environment as they manipulate the physical surroundings they are in.”
Healthcare industry involving Virtual Reality technology can benefit doctors and patients. It will change the functionality and operational environment of medical field.
In this post, we have mentioned a list of medical fields which could use Virtual Reality technology to transform it better.
1. Medical Training
Surgical procedures are time consuming as it needs a lot of attention and is quite crucial job. If the surgeries are of a person’s delicate body part, the surgeons have to be more careful while operating.
Surgeons are well trained, and they apprentice their seniors for a long time before trying their hands-on patients, as there is a risk on patient’s life. Well this process could take years, before a doctor could actually perform operation independently. To accelerate the training process, virtual technology can be useful. It gives more time and hours to perform as they are capable to cover wider portion of surgical techniques without risking life of real patients.
Example of such practice, at Stanford University School of Medicine, students are already using the unconventional Stanford Virtual Heart to improve learning on congenital heart diseases. The experience of studying this way was more exciting technique to study complex hypotheses in anatomy.
2. PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) Therapy
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is more common than you think. Mostly soldiers when come back from war zone suffer from this condition. However, they are not the only ones. This mental condition can influence anyone who has suffered from any sort of trauma, be it stress, accident, sexual assault or other.
Medical professionals take help VR technology to produce immersive scenes that activates patient’s fears and assist them experience the painful journey so that they could study it more to it before offering help with the condition.
Medical professionals use these technologies to cure the patient and make them realize that the patients are safe, and nothing will harm them.
3. Phobia Treatment
Patients with phobia and paranoia need extensive care and environment to cope with. Virtual reality gives path to doctors to provide exposure therapy to patients like that. Meanwhile in physical surroundings, VR headphones relaxes people suffering in a controlled environment which seems to be real.
4. Patient Relaxation
Chronic medical conditions make patients bedridden, they are completely helpless. The event can be agonizing as patients have to survive their life being on their beds with medical teams assisting to perform basic functions.
However, with VR the sufferer doesn’t need to live life with one angle. VR will help them to see the world in a different way. With VR, they can ease up and see a virtual-real external world right from their space and experience taking a walk, riding motorbike and more as if they are never confined to their bed.
5. Pain Relief
Another one of the most important things that a patient go through is pain during the treatment especially in chronic disease like cancer, open wounds, burns, and broken limbs. Dealing with pain could be handled by virtual reality as patient need a diversion in the brain.
This aids in confusing pain pathway which leads to brain which reduces the extreme level of pain to an extent. Such as virtual reality games prove to be a good diversion as they draw the patient’s mind away from the pain areas.
6. Phantom Limb Pain Management
People who has lost limb or limbs gets amputated suffer from localized sensation near the of missing limb spot. Similarly, people with prosthetic limbs suffer discomfort and immense pain.
Luckily virtual reality helps patients manage PLP (Phantom Limb Pain) via VR games which helps take control of their limbs and reduces the pain.
7. Social Cognition Training
Autism spectrum disorder influences the nervous system and sway the overall cognitive, social, emotional and physical health of a patient. Virtual Reality can help in dealing with such patients by developing programs like social cognition training to observe brain wave of autistic person. The process includes boosting brain imaging by putting patient in various social scenarios, to make them understand various social pattern.
Adding VR headsets to the scene can enhance the activity of brain of these patients and hence aid them to cultivate social behavior.
8. Treatment for Differently-Abled
Differently abled people could experience the thrill of outside world despite their physical condition. Virtual reality enhances the living standards of an individual by enabling him/her to experience various environment which seems to be real.
9. Anxiety Treatment
With panic and stress, a person can suffer with anxiety attacks. Medical professionals generally suggest reflection and meditation as therapy as it keep patients’ breathing monitored, in check and controlled.
To ameliorate breathing patterns, apps with VR technology are used by physicians to monitor and control the uniformity of a patient’s breath before starting treatment.
To Wrap Up
So, these are some of the many advantages of using Virtual Reality technology to help patients and relieving them from pain, anxiety and other issues. Virtual Reality has made treating patients easy and this has made easy for the patients as well as it helps them in various ways.