COVID-19 has had a transformational effect on the healthcare landscape. Healthtech companies have found themselves in high demand at a time after we can’t be physically next to everyone and that we need new, innovative ways to deliver many aspects of healthcare. We are witnessing a true need for change and Virtual reality has stepped up.
Education and VR in healthcare
U.K.-U.S. based Virti is an ed-tech company that has been focused on using its virtual and augmented reality combined with artificial intelligence to train people working in health and social care around the world during the crisis. Dr. Alex Young, Orthopaedic Surgeon and founder of Virti highlights the role of VR in up-skilling a workforce:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of having the ability to quickly up-skill, remotely. With face-to-face training now impossible for many organizations, it is a great opportunity for technology to provide a safe and accessible solution that can prepare employees for new ways of working and keep patients safe.” VR also encompasses a longer-term role to play in improving patient safety.
Analytics
With stakes so high in medicine and surgery, it is impossible to totally recreate the stress and emotion of real clinical practice in the real-world, but VR can create a high-fidelity, high-stress, yet secure environment to make and learn from mistakes. And, crucially, traditionally subjective data like communication, teamwork, and decision-making under pressure can be measured, quantified, and validated objectively to provide organizations and individuals with a better understanding of how prepared their workforce really is for given scenarios.
Keeping staff and patients safe using VR
Virtual reality is providing advantages during COVID-19 beyond just training. Tech giant, Microsoft, has partnered with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the U.K., using the mixed reality headset HoloLens, that keeps doctors secure as they treat patients with the virus. The system sends a safe, live video-feed to a computer screen in a nearby room, allowing healthcare teams to see everything the doctor treating COVID-19 patients can see while remaining at a secure distance.
According to the Trust, the initiative has led to a fall within the amount of time staff that is spending in high-risk areas of up to 83%, as well as significantly reducing the amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) being employed by an estimated 700 items per ward, per week, as fewer people have to inherit contact with patients.
The value of VR on the bottom floor of healthcare, not only just as a teaching aid, but as a tangible means of improving clinician and patient safety has clearly been demonstrated. This is often further evident within the investment and acquisitions made recently within the space.
