Virtual Reality in Medicine

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that allows the user to explore a computer-generated environment in three dimensions, as if they are actually present in this virtual environment. Participating in these immersive simulations requires a VR headset as well as some sort of hand controllers, which are either held in the hands or embedded in gloves. VR is often thought of as a technologically advanced type of video game, but it can also be more than that. In the medical field, VR is increasingly being used to train doctors and nurses, teach patients about needed medical interventions, and even reduce pain without drugs.

Medical Training

Medical education has progressed from simple memorization of information to working with students to develop strategies for devising and implementing an effective treatment plan for each patient. Skills that medical professionals need include being good communicators and knowing how to identify and solve problems. Using virtual reality to practice assessing and triaging patients lets students develop, practice, and fine-tune these skills without interfering with care of real-world patients. It also allows them to practice medical procedures and learn anatomy in a unique way.

• The Applications of Virtual Reality Technology in Medical Group Teaching: A study conducted in 2018 analyzed the effectiveness of virtual reality technology for training medical professionals.
• Future or Fad? Virtual Reality in Medical Education: One incredibly useful application of virtual reality in medical training is allowing students to fully walk through a situation where the patient is in extreme distress.
• How VR Is Revolutionizing the Way Future Doctors Are Learning About Our Bodies: Virtual reality allows medical students to learn anatomy in a way not possible using textbooks or even cadavers.
• Disaster Medicine Training: The Case for Virtual Reality: Virtual reality training is vital in producing more health professionals trained in responding to disasters and catastrophic events as well as providing continuing education for those already working in the field.
• Immersive Technologies and the Future of Health Education: Along with helping to train future medical professionals in performing procedures and evaluating patients, VR also helps train them in how to communicate with their patients.

Treatment of Patients

One vital use of virtual reality is planning out intricate procedures and letting all involved doctors and nurses practice their part in the surgery. This can have a major impact on the chances of a successful outcome of the procedure. It decreases the chance of accidental injury to the patient during the surgery. VR also improves the outcomes of surgeries performed with robotic arms or other devices. It also helps the patients, who can use VR to better understand the procedure beforehand. For operations where the patient must stay awake (as in some neurological procedures), VR can also distract the patient to help them cope with undergoing the surgery while conscious.

• Virtual Reality System Helps Surgeons, Reassures Patients: Patients facing procedures (especially complex ones) can better understand why they need medical intervention and what will happen to them by using VR.
• Virtual Reality in Medicine: Patients wearing a pain-sensing headset can be effectively treated at home using virtual reality applications.
• Three Ways Virtual Reality Is Transforming Medical Care: Virtual reality offers patients effective treatments for PTSD and anxiety along with allowing them to complete prescribed rehab for strokes and other ailments from home.
• Virtual Reality Might Be the Next Big Thing for Mental Health: Alzheimer’s disease and anxiety are among the conditions that seem to be receptive to therapeutic interventions using VR.
• It’s Not Just for Video Games: Using Virtual Reality to Enhance Patient Care: One way virtual reality is changing patient care is by increasing patients’ ability to age in place by allowing medical professionals to virtually visit a patient’s home and gauge the potential for future issues.

Pain Management

Pain management and the use of opioids is a topic of great concern in the medical field. The success of virtual reality in treating patients with chronic or severe pain, such as those recovering from skin grafts, offers hope of effective treatment without risk of addiction. It’s also being studied for use in childbirth and to help pediatric patients deal with things like daily injections or other treatments.

• Virtual Reality Offers Real Pain Relief: Cedars Sinai published a study examining the way VR offers pain relief to patients.
• Virtual Reality for Management of Pain in Hospitalized Patients: A Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial: A scientific study evaluated the efficacy of the use in VR in patients versus the use of pain medication.
• Study Finds Virtual Reality Can Help Reduce Severe Pain: Virtual reality helps control pain by changing how people experience pain signals.
• Immersive Virtual Reality for Clinical Pain: Considerations for Effective Therapy: This study investigates the current challenges of creating impactful virtual reality situations for patients and the complications that should be considered when working with patients dealing with persistent pain.
• Virtual Reality as Therapy for Pain: While many people might think that using VR to treat pain works the way watching television might, by providing a temporary distraction, The New York Times explains what patients actually experience when undergoing the therapy.

Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation

Virtual reality opens up many opportunities in the field of physical therapy. Some studies report that using VR shortens recovery times and improves patient outcomes. It also allows patients to focus on things other than the pain during sessions. The VR setting is also more enjoyable, which can increase patient compliance. Stroke victims in particular have seen great gains using augmented reality and VR-assisted therapy.

• Virtual Reality in Physical Therapy: Although it sounds like something out of a futuristic movie, VR technology is already changing the field of physical therapy.
• Virtual and Augmented Reality Helps Improve Patient Outcomes for Physical Therapists: One way VR makes physical therapy more effective is by gamifying the process and making it more enjoyable for patients.
• Virtual Reality Helps Physical Therapy Students See New Answers: Studies indicate that patients who undergo virtual reality-assisted physical therapy have better outcomes.
• How Virtual Reality Will Change Physical Therapy Forever: One benefit of VR therapy is helping patients recovering from a stroke who struggle with successfully completing conventional physical therapy.
• Virtual Reality Boosts Physical Therapy for Children With Disabilities: Children are especially receptive to VR physical therapy and could attain long-term gains.

Addiction

Addiction is hard for many patients to overcome. Virtual reality treatment can help them practice identifying and resisting triggers that make them want to relapse and also help them learn to avoid the addictive substance or behavior in their homes and social groups.

• Virtual Reality Cue Refusal Video Game for Alcohol and Cigarette Recovery Support: Summative Study: Scientists assessed how patients’ physical movements in VR in response to addictive cues affected their recovery.
• Virtual Reality Cue Reactivity Assessment in Cigarette Smokers: For two decades, response to cue stimuli has been considered an important factor in successfully curbing an addictive behavior. Now, scientists evaluate how VR treatment helps patients curb responses to addictive cues.
• Clinical Relevance of Immersive Virtual Reality in the Assessment and Treatment of Addictive Disorders: A Systematic Review and Future Perspective: Scientists evaluate the overall effectiveness of virtual reality treatments for people dealing with addiction.
• Virtual Reality as a Tool for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Review: Virtual reality can be used in the context of cognitive behavioral therapy to treat addiction.

Health Education

The more patients understand their condition and treatment plan, the better outcome they have. However, patients may also get overwhelmed and either not understand or forget the information health-care providers share with them. Providing education through (virtual) reality helps them understand how to comply with a doctor’s suggestions. It also can help them better understand upcoming treatments and procedures.

• Augmented Reality in Patient Education and Health Literacy: A Scoping Review Protocol: Better health literacy leads to better outcomes for patients, and augmented reality is a valuable tool in increasing patient literacy.
• How VR in Health Care Delivers Pandemic Education and Outreach: During the beginning of the pandemic, VR assisted in helping patients understand how the illness progressed and also allowed people to quickly learn how to properly put on personal protective equipment.
• Can Virtual Reality Change the Way We Think About Health? Virtual reality can allow caregivers to experience their loved one’s health challenges and learn to respond appropriately.
• The Use of Virtual Reality in Patient Education: Up to 80% of information conveyed by doctors to patients is forgotten almost instantly, but the use of VR helps patients retain more information.

Fitness

One way to make patients increase their fitness levels is to make it fun. Virtual reality can use immersive games to get people up and moving without even noticing that they’re exercising. VR fitness can also provide immediate feedback and help players move more efficiently and effectively, which can reduce the chance of injury. VR workouts can also be done from anywhere, meaning patients don’t have to travel to the gym or to a personal trainer.

• VR Fitness Is a Serious Workout, Seriously: Virtual reality can deliver intense workouts that help people burn calories and build muscle.
• Can Virtual Reality Really Get You Fit? Virtual reality can help users achieve more effective workouts.
• The Best Way to Get a VR Workout (That’s Also Fun): VR workouts tend to be more fun and therefore more motivating than a standard treadmill workout.
• Exercise and Virtual Reality: During a VR workout, users can walk, run, punch, kick, slide and do many other movements that help improve their fitness level.

Marketing

Keeping a modern medical office or hospital in business today requires an effective marketing strategy. Virtual reality can allow physicians to showcase their skills and patients to share their stories in new ways that can have a big impact on bringing new patients to the practice. As the use of virtual reality grows, this chance to show what benefits and skills doctors possess will become more common.

• Inspiring Ways Health-Care Marketing Is Using Augmented Reality: Broadcasting a virtual surgery is one way health-care institutions are incorporating AR and VR into their marketing plans.
• Role of Virtual Reality in Health Care: Marketing is just one part of how the medical industry is being changed by virtual reality.
• The Trajectory of Virtual Reality in Health-Care Marketing: VR allows medical professionals to market their practices and institutions in innovative ways.