AR/XR Technology In The Healthcare Industry
The first step towards providing efficient healthcare facilities is making healthcare services available to patients. Increasing accessibility means reducing the time a patient gets the preliminary assessment to determine the urgency and nature of the required treatment.
It’s necessary to bridge the gap between patients and healthcare facilities to improve the outcomes. The outcome of healthcare services depends on the treatment, avoiding complications, and reducing readmissions. Using XR in healthcare industry can facilitate the triaging process, improve the outcomes, and empower the healthcare industry for good.
If you want to know the healthcare industry’s challenges and how XR in healthcare can help overcome these challenges and provide a promising solution, keep reading this article.
The Common Challenges Of The Healthcare Industry
Although healthcare is one of the most advanced industries, some challenges halt providing services to those in need. These challenges make patient care difficult and drastically increase the economic burden.
The Challenges In Primary Diagnosis
- At the time of accidents and emergencies, usually, paramedics and emergency medical technicians are the first people to reach the patients. They are not specialists and need more expertise to handle a case. It affects the case outcomes.
- Conditions with medically unexplained symptoms, atypical and non-specific presentations where expert opinion is required.
- Patient’s remote location in a condition where they require immediate specialist care.
Post-Discharge Care
- Problems arise when patients are discharged early, have insufficient post-discharge support or care, worsening of disease due to non-compliance, or inadequate follow-up care.
- Increase in readmission due to various patient factors.
Understanding XR In Healthcare
Extended reality or XR, is an advanced technological term that includes MR, AR and VR. This technology has already impacted many fields. XR technology brings immense potential to healthcare as it merges the digital and physical worlds. XR technology is acknowledged to improve patient interaction with the specialist and offer a better healthcare experience.
What XR Technology Can Do In Healthcare?
XR technology can potentially overcome the challenges in primary and post-discharge care facilities. Using XR technology-based devices, paramedics and emergency medical technicians can connect physicians, bridging the gap between patients and primary healthcare. Furthermore, XR can help with diagnostics, remote consultations, training and rehabilitation.
XR’s Role In Medical Diagnostics
Making the correct diagnosis is the first step toward the right treatment and achieving positive outcomes. XR introduces effective solutions for physicians using digital powers to get more information about patients’ conditions, and surgeons can practice surgery before operating on real patients. Thus, the technology helps in minimizing risks and improving efficiency.
XR’s Assistance In Enhancing Medical Training
XR plays a useful role in medical training. The technology provides real-life hands-on experience and improves decision-making skills to provide efficient treatment. Medical professionals and students can immerse themselves in realistic medical scenarios using VR during practice so they are trained, experienced and competent to face real-world challenges.
Patient Engagement And Rehabilitation
Patients usually do not comply with the post-treatment guidelines. Keeping a patient engaged and committed to rehabilitation is a tough job and affects treatment outcomes. Using VR to keep patients committed to physical and mental therapy increases their motivation to complete the exercises and recover faster. Therefore, XR in healthcare can improve treatment outcomes.
XR’s Impact On Healthcare Cost
Healthcare cost is one of the most challenging aspects of the healthcare industry, and using XR in healthcare has a profound effect on reducing it. XR implication brings many benefits, such as improving diagnosis and post-care measures and reducing rehospitalization and annual healthcare costs.
Although XR implementation is costly, its advantages outweigh the initial cost and offer more cost-effective solutions in the long run.
Ethical And Privacy Concerns
The healthcare system is ethically bound to respect patient’s privacy and secure their data. With increasing accessibility and availability of medical data over a hospital’s website or server, ethical and privacy concerns are rising among patients and their families. Addressing these issues is crucial to maintaining trust in the healthcare system.
Digital Triaging And Remote Consultations
Digital technology, such as telemedicine, has improved healthcare structure, and XR is shaping patient triaging. It offers comprehensive solutions for conducting initial assessments online and reducing the need for in-person visits. AR was a great help during the COVID-19 pandemic and is an efficient technology to treat patients with mobility issues.
The Rise Of A New Era With XR In Healthcare
Currently, XR supports triaging, remote consultation, medical training and patient rehabilitation. XR will play a pivotal role in shaping the healthcare industry as it evolves and advances. Moving ahead with XR in healthcare will lead to more efficient, accessible and patient-centric healthcare services.
XR Enabled Devices Supporting The Healthcare Industry
Many XR-enabled devices are being used in the healthcare industry to facilitate students, professionals and patients. They have helped medical staff during the pandemic and are used in many fields worldwide.
RealWear empowers healthcare with advanced, hands-free, voice-enabled devices that have helped paramedics and frontline healthcare workers in helping patients in need.
RealWear & Realtime AR’s assisted reality solutions in more detail – and watch the HMT-1 in action in real time.
In the following video, you can see the HMT-1 in use for:
- Superior consultation
- Urgent care in the emergency ward
- To generate videos and photos of the patient as treatments go on
An exemplary use of telemedicine in the healthcare sector – in the hands of frontline workers like doctors, nurses & etc.
Similarly, HMT-1 helped emergency medical technicians in offering urgent care to patients in need before they could reach the hospital. RealWear enables the ENT staff to access live support from professionals at the hospital or carry on with workflow instructions.
Here, take a look yourself: https://vimeo.com/395034759
RealWear unique technology with 5g data network transmission, ultra-low delay communication, and real-time information delivery capacity makes it a perfect choice for paramedics and emergency medical technicians. We work to assist in the move to make public healthcare more accessible, swift & competent in the digital age. You can read more about our innovative endeavours in telemedicine here: RealWear in Telemedicine.
Please feel free to reach out to us for product information or a free demo: https://realtimear.com
