Virtual Reality is very well accepted in and very well implemented in healthcare sector. Today VR is hugely used in medical intervention and rehabilitation. VR can be used for medical education, student training, and upskilling. Many medical institutions are exploring capabilities of immersive technologies to provide continuous education to physicians to reduce cost.
Virtual Reality helps in re-creating the environment allowing user to submerge into any training scenario with utmost realism. With easy availability of VR in the market, here are a few ways that it can be implemented to enhance medical education, training, and upskilling.
1. VR Helps In High-Risk Medical Training
Medical training is mostly hands-on and is costly. Before getting into high-risk procedures, specialists can plan the strategy among themselves using the VR in a risk-free environment. Here surgeons and medical practitioners can get submerged into various training modules where they can enact real world scenarios and practice decision making, react to sudden condition changes, have direct hand-on practices of various skills from intubation to different surgical procedures. Through VR, specialists can build a sense of accomplishment by the visual simulation that can blur the tactile barrier. VR helps specialists practice high-risk medical procedures in a controlled, patient-safe environment, in turn maintaining and growing their skill levels.
2. Tool For Remote Training
To keep pace with the new developments in the medical fields, it is essential for medical practitioners to keep updated throughout their careers. The more immersive and interactive VR becomes, the more prevalent it will be in our everyday lives. Virtual reality helps to bring individuals from around the world into one environment reducing the travel related costs, adding flexibility to the schedules, and allowing more frequent interactions between them.
3. VR For Largescale Medical Devices Training
VR training is an effective method for teaching medical students and professionals. It provides a safe, cost-effective, and interactive way to learn about the different conditions they are likely to see during their career. Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by placing the user inside an immersive either with a headset, VR glasses, or through some other means.
4. VR For Expensive Or Complex Procedures Training
VR creates an immersive experience that can be used in the training process of specialists. It allows them to prepare for real-life situations and feel more confident when they are faced with it. It helps in reducing the potential number of errors as trainees can do numerous practices prior to the actual procedure with actual tools or equipment. It also helps specialists obtain the skills necessary for the procedure by providing an opportunity to practice before they do it on a patient.
5. VR For Repetitive Tasks
VR has been used in training for years, but it was not until recently that it became a mainstream training tool. The use of VR in training can be considered gamification of the training process, with elements like rewards for correct responses or penalties for incorrect ones. VR training helps build cognitive memory in an engaging and efficient way. This type of training has been shown to improve learning, retention, and performance on a variety of tasks. The technology gives a wide scope of possibilities to train medical specialist on different level of task complexity. It can be used in the future to provide more personalized and individualized training programs for medical professions.
Virtual Reality is changing the way people interact with their surroundings, they can experience things they would never be able to see in real life.