Imagine how cool it would be if, like weddings, surgeries could be rehearsed too? During the main event, there will be no surprise elements or complications. The patient will have a higher chance of living and lead a healthy life thereafter. More and more people will be saved, and fewer people will die in the OT.

With the employment of Augmented Reality Technology and Virtual Reality Technology in the medical industry surgery rehearsals will no longer be a far-fetched dream And, not just surgeries, AR/VR offers a plethora of other benefits too. Wondering about those benefits?

Below mentioned are the seven ways the healthcare sector is capitalizing on AR/VR technology:

1. Nursing When AR and VR technology are incorporated, nurses' work will be reduced by half, and more patients will be taken care of. Also nursing students know that if they mess up during their training period, no one in the OR dies. Thus, to give more realistic hands-on experience to the students, Virtual Reality training programs are helpful.

Also, with this technology, nursing home facilities can be enhanced too, and not just medical institutions and hospitals. Aged patients will be taken care of in a better manner, and their physical as well as mental health will intensify. Training resources, a critical element in healthcare, can improve tremendously by outsourcing it to technology.

It offers:

· Rich learning opportunities for nursing students and help integrate theories while making accurate–time decisions.

· Standardized clinical experiences for nurses subjected to unequal learning experiences

· Stimulations to help develop competencies and boost areas of critical thinking.

2. Medical Training

Before the actual surgeries, medical students/interns can learn how to perform surgery better with the help of technology. It helps them deal with high – complexity and closely analyze the anatomy and mechanics of the human body.

Technology enables increased interactivity by providing more profound penetration into the gradations of human body functions. It also lets trainers test and examine student skills in a tailored virtual environment so that the student can understand their weaknesses and work on them.

3. Surgery

AR-based equipment empowers doctors to visualize the explicit locations of the patient's organs. It helps by providing surgeons with real-time and correct upfront information on the patient's vitals. They will also receive accurate information about procedure details, equipment locations, and other requisite data.

They can quickly figure out the diseased organ, tumor, or other abnormalities, enhancing the procedures while maintaining the patient's safety. For instance, during a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) heart procedure, the surgeons need real-time information, which they can obtain through sensors such as instant X-rays and 3D U/S scans.

4. Scrub Collaborations

AR/VR-based apps can enable the collaboration of multiple scrubs remotely at the same time, which can aid the consultation process. Because it will help identify the patient problem quicker than manual inspection, the collaboration will correct scrub can become a timely thing. It can also provision collaborative remote surgeries and conferences between doctors located in diversely but are working on a standard or related medical issue.

If you take Proximie, for example, it is an Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality based virtual surgical collaboration platform. With this app, doctors can get hands-on virtual assistance and let a remote surgeon scrub in virtually during a surgery. People using Proximie can physically show where to make incisions, how to perform the surgery, what precautions to take, and how risks can be curbed.

5.Relieving psychological pain through VR

AR-based apps can invent new ways for therapists to help their patients. They can leverage virtual setups and demonstrate the effectiveness of the sessions, which are otherwise just verbal and not as effective. It can also help facilitate mental and emotional pain reduction and patient sleep pattern improvements. Therapists can work on phobias as well as certain addictions in people. Moreover, it can also help doctors to comprehensively understand the patterns and types of disorders in their patients to develop better and targeted treatments.

6. Early Diagnoses and Immediate Remedies

AR and VR technology delivers essential services like pulse examination, emotion reading, and monitoring of vitals. Along with diagnostics, it will provide immediate remedies and first-aid during heart attacks, electrocutions, poisoning, etc., to prevent deaths that generally happen due to the prolonged absence of aid. It helps doctors come up with a treatment that is impossible in its absence.

At times, it is too late to diagnose a fatal disease like cancer or diabetes. Also, internal injuries are undiagnosed due to a lack of proper technology and equipment. With augmented and virtual reality, this problem can be solved quickly.

7. Quick Treatment

If the disease/illness diagnosis is made quicker, the doctors can step up on the treatment and remedy it before it worsens. Several diseases can be accurately prevented and cured through AR-enabled mobile apps. It will also enable patients to be self-sufficient in taking preventive measures through recovery. Due to this, the doctor can consult more patients, and unnecessary time won't be spent interacting with one patient multiple times a week.

It will help people understand the nearest clinic in case of an emergency. This could come in handy when a person with complicated medical history is in a foreign country. His medical history might take time to transfer; without that, doctors cannot start the treatment. However, with the help of technology, that problem can be overcome.

Bonus: Teaching kids

It will be helpful to teach kids about the human body. The kids can learn about the human body from a very young age by receiving real–time information. Hence, growing up, they will know what to do and how to execute it better. While serving their internship period, they need not start from scratch and have a basic idea about the patient's pain. This will enable them to dedicate their time to other grave matters, research, and discoveries.

Wrapping Up

Healthcare is one of the world's highest–impacting industries, yet it is slow to embrace AR/VR technology. One of the reasons is a lack of awareness. Hospitals and medical institutions need infrastructure and platforms to employ this technology and everything that comes with it. The sooner they embrace AR VR technology, the faster they can save more lives and thrive. It is a privilege and a chance to do better for the society as whole.