The application of virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) in medicine is already real. The goal of this technological application is to enhance the physical environment with virtual components that offer complementary data.
The most recent developments have made it possible for VR and augmented reality to fast become a crucial component of contemporary healthcare, assisting professionals in clinical settings and researchers in the pipeline.
According to numerous analyses, the health sector will make the second-highest use of virtual and augmented reality technology by the year 2026, according to Juan Pablo Casal, Commercial Director of Telcos and Digital Companies for Latin America at Intel.
Entertainment, including video games, is the first industry. It’s intriguing to say that the second will be health. One is curious about how modern technology affects health and attempts to comprehend the advancements. According to Casal, virtual and augmented reality technology is now being used to precisely address a variety of treatments.
The company has extensive knowledge of the needs of clinicians, researchers, and patients because it has worked in the healthcare and life sciences industries for decades.
Along with their knowledge of ubiquitous computing, pervasive networking, and edge-to-cloud capabilities, they are able to develop technologies that aid businesses in overcoming complicated problems and making better use of their data.
The Push of the Pandemic
The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic presented the healthcare system with a plethora of difficulties, but it also spurred organizations and medical facilities around the world to test novel virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies for patient monitoring as well as training and assessment tools for future professionals.
Virtual and augmented reality are predicted to play a major role in healthcare systems, supporting modern medicine, as the potential they provide for clinicians, researchers, and patients grows every day.
How can Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) be applied in medicine?
There are a number of instances where the usage of this technology is already widespread, despite the fact that, like many others, it has not yet reached its full deployment in the fields of health and medicine:
Improves central vision
Applications for people with central vision loss have been developed in the ophthalmological sector, enabling clinicians to restore reading ability in patients with severe age-related macular degeneration.
More entertaining and educational drug brochures
Pharmacists can use virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) to replace printed instructions with systems that visually depict how a medicine acts in the body.
Surgery assistance
Surgery now uses virtual and augmented reality as a support tool to operate on patients more precisely. A virtual layer of information can now be superimposed on reality, a 3D view of an organ, or even the patient’s vital signs, thanks to a variety of technological advancements.
The study of the human body
There are programs that make it simple to see the human body, allowing you to discern between everything from muscles to the smallest veins using a dynamic holographic model. With the use of this technology, medical students can examine the human body’s operations and how it responds to various illnesses in a more dynamic and lifelike manner.
Intel has contributed to a number of achievements in this field, including the use of virtual reality to operate on a human brain after scanning the patient to create a three-dimensional model.
In conclusion, According to Juan Pablo Casal, a steady road is being taken that will enable the full use of virtual and augmented reality in medicine. According to him, “In the case of health, it is something that is truly going to affect the quality of the therapies to a big level.”
