Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death for men and women in USA. CVD is solely responsible for more than 24 million deaths per year. Some of the major cardiovascular diseases are listed below:
- Arrhythmias
- Coronary heart disease
- Myocardial Infarction
- Congestive heart failure
- Valvular heart disease
- Marfan syndrome and Aortic pathology
- Congenital heart disease
Virtual Reality in Cardiovascular medicine:
By the year 2026, it is expected that the global healthcare market would reach USD 245 billion, while the Virtual Reality market would reach USD 42.84 billion by 2028. Medical practitioners have been using virtual reality for years. This includes pre-surgical planning and intra-procedural visualization as well.
Here are a few ways virtual reality can help in cardiovascular medicine:
1. Planning for Surgery
Through Virtual Reality, medical practitioners can have an overview of complex cases before the actual procedure. Surgeons can also use VR to discuss the complexity of the procedure with other physicians through live presentations.
2. Medical Education
Virtual reality helps to overcome the surgical anxiety and fear for both the patient and the medical practitioners. Through augmented and virtual reality, patients can be taught about their medical conditions and procedures in detail.
3. Cardiac Rehabilitation
With the help of virtual reality, there has been an increase in functional performance and energy levels in patients. Cardiac rehabilitation programs primarily focus on improving cardiac health. As VR programs are more engaging and are mostly custom-made, they have proven to be more effective than the traditional approaches.
What is Cardiac Rehabilitation:
Cardiac rehabilitation is a medically designed and supervised program including exercise, support, education, and counselling of patients. It is focused on improving the cardiovascular health of patients experiencing any cardiovascular disease. It works in three ways:
1. Exercise
Virtual Reality makes exercise fun and easy. Exercises can be tailor-made as per the patient’s need and they can exercise as per their convenience involving lesser risks. Patients can sit in the comfort of their home and exercise through VR headsets.
2. Education and Healthy Living
Virtual Reality can help patients better understand their condition before undergoing surgeries with the help of doctors and surgeons. These simulations are also helpful for doctors as they can test out different procedures without having to put their patients through them. This has proved to be highly educative for both patients and their family members.
3. Counselling
Cardiac rehab programs involve patient counselling helping them to overcome their pain. With the use of VR technologies, patients can heal faster.
VR has proven to be a breakthrough in cardiology treatments. It has emerged as an effective solution for both healthcare experts and patients.