Role of Augmented Reality in Healthcare Industry!
The healthcare industry, like any other sector, is hugely progressive. Being one of the oldest of the surviving industries, the healthcare industry is slackened in no way when it comes to growth, and growth today is all about embracing the cutting-edge technologies that we see around us.
The transformation of the healthcare industry started with the emergence of the internet and the digital software and equipment that it brought in. Virtual consultations and the growth of telehealth, Digital practice management software and patient management, automation, AI and machine learning, 3D printing, augmented reality in healthcare and virtual reality in healthcare are some of the examples of the ground-breaking technologies that are in support of the healthcare industry to help it grow future-proof.
Though every other technology is touching the healthcare industry and influencing it greatly to help the patients in their treatment, reduce their cost of care, and make healthcare fast and effective, augmented reality in healthcare is one of the least discussed among them. This is why we are here to discuss augmented reality in medicine and the pivotal role that it is playing to make the future of both the patients and the practices better, thereby enhancing the overall quality of healthcare and its experience. So, let's begin with it. Here we will first be starting with augmented reality and what it is.
What is augmented reality?
Augmented Reality can be defined as the enhanced version of the real physical world. Such an environment is created digitally with the use of visual elements, sounds, and other sensory stimuli leveraging modern technologies. Though primarily augmented reality technology is seen in the mobile and computer gaming industries, this leading-edge technology is now also blending with many other industries to help them reap all the benefits that augmented reality technology is bringing in. Among other industries, AR in healthcare is a much-talked-about topic lately simply because the future potential of augmented reality in healthcare is huge.
Augmented Reality and healthcare are no more aliens now with more and more practices and other medical units implementing AR in healthcare. Goldman Sachs has recently predicted that the AR and VR in the healthcare industry will be reaching $5.1 bn by 2025, while MarketsandMarkets has estimated the CAGR of the virtual reality and augmented reality in medicine at 30.7%.
Augmented reality and healthcare: How is it changing the medical industry?
modern technologies the users can take part in a virtual world, computerized. However, there exists a major difference between these two technologies. To understand that we need to keep in mind that virtual reality is immersive, where people can plunge into a fully virtual or make-believe world, complete with sights, sounds, and more, but the world created in front of people in virtual reality is not something that is closely related with the real world. On the other hand, in augmented reality that is not possible. AR or augmented reality is thus, really useful for important industries like the medical sector. AR helps the doctors, nurses, and other physicians of practices and other healthcare units to visualize things right in front of them, which they cannot do if they are devoid of augmented reality in healthcare. AR in healthcare is really useful because it helps merge virtual images with the real world and the real images.
You would be surprised to learn that augmented reality in medicine helps the doctors and other medical practitioners see things like the veins that run down a person's arm or see through one's legs to find a broken bone and its condition. Discovering brain tumors, Xray, and other health records have also been very easy only with the gift of augmented reality technology in healthcare. Due to all these benefits augmented reality finds its utility in many different departments of
Prominent Benefits of Augmented Reality in Healthcare!
Augmented reality is not only a super useful technology, it is indeed a boon for the healthcare industry. To speak of the benefits of augmented reality in healthcare is to belittle the game-changing technology because AR now makes everything possible that wasnât in the healthcare industry. Moreover, it is important to note that augmented reality in healthcare brings a wide range of benefits for almost everyone involved in the healthcare industry, which is why it is so praised.
Some of the major departments where the benefits of augmented reality shine today along with all the benefits that the AR in healthcare brings are:
Augmented reality and healthcare for healthcare providers
The augmented reality technology is prominently beneficial for the healthcare providers, which includes medical units and healthcare practices. Some of the ways in which AR is benefitting the healthcare providers are:
Virtualization of surgery
Surgeries are an integral part of patient treatment and are undoubtedly the most intricate part of the healthcare sector. This is a decade-old practice that the doctors practice and has gone through gazillions of innovations. All of the surgeries contain numerous tricky parts and subsections and some surgeries are indeed more complex than the others. However, with the onset of digital technologies like augmented reality, the providers can now visualize the whole surgical process and the surgery itself and plan it as they require, complete with a detailed course of action. This saves time, minimizes risks, and is cost-effective too.
Medical training
Augmented reality is a big boon for the training conducted in the medical sector. With the augmented reality healthcare applications, medical training can be immersive and bring all the things that the doctors, nurses, and other medical staff need to be aware of. This will provide them with deeper insights into the human body and its functions. According to the latest survey, the World Health Organization (WHO) has pointed out the lack of 12.9 million physicians, nurses, and other medical workers. This can now be fulfilled by those who are properly trained and who know the human body and its workings in and out, and this can only be possible if we start reaping the benefits of augmented reality in healthcare.
Training of doctors
Doctor training is another major attribute of the healthcare industry that the sector needs to take seriously. Several life science companies, other healthcare units, hospitals, and other medical organizations are now using the latest augmented reality technology among others to engage and educate the doctors.
Insights from the patients
Over 43% of the patients never know the length of their appointments reported the recent survey results. Moreover, a newly conducted study said that 53.2% of the patients mentioned that being aware of their appointment length would actually change their attitude about the patient appointments. Along with all these patient insights, it is also important to note that they are mostly in dark with regard to the medical tests and treatment procedures being performed on the patients. This problem can be easily mitigated with the use of augmented reality in healthcare practices.
GrowPractice is a trusted medical office solutions provider that you can contact if you want to dissolve the previous worries regarding the patient wait time, appointments, and more, and improve the quality of the healthcare extended.
Patient rehabilitation
Treatment procedures are endless, and critical surgeries are performed at the flick of a second, but it is the patients ultimately, who need to recover from them mentally as well as physically. To ease this process, the patients and the practices can be provided guidance regarding the rehabilitation of the patients and how they can do it successfully. PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is one of the main reasons why most patients are really shaky and take a long time to recover. The augmented reality and virtual reality technologies when combined can stimulate controlled environments, which shall provide a huge relief to the patients to shake off their anxiety and stress.
Crisis management
Crises are common in the healthcare sector and the most common among them is the Covid-19 pandemic that broke out almost out of nowhere. However, such pandemics, epidemics, and more can be contained and handled better in the future with the spread of augmented reality, virtual reality, and its related technologies. Apart from these benefits of augmented reality in healthcare, AR technology stands useful in many other ways. The augmented reality healthcare applications also extend to the payers, who can find:
• Better explanation of the healthcare plans
• Discover virtual customer care
• Experience remote training and guidance for the employees
• Enhanced marketing and customer engagement
Furthermore, it is also important to note that the blend of augmented reality and healthcare can also result in:
• Improving the fitness instructors
• Promoting healthy eating habits
• Improving physical therapy
• Enhancing the device operation training
• Maintaining and troubleshooting devices
• Chiseling marketing pitches
AR in healthcare is truly a blessing for the medical sector as is GrowPractice, which brings medical office software solutions including efficient patient and practice management software and systems that are designed to operate automatically and improve the quality of healthcare.
Steer your Practice towards Growth with GrowPractice!
GrowPractice brings an array of medical software and systems that helps solve numerous practice problems and drive the medical practices and other healthcare units toward growth. Here's how GrowPractice would transform your medical practice and help it grow:
• GrowPractice offers fast and efficient patient appointment schedulers
• It offers paperless patient check-ins and intakes
• GrowPractice brings in advanced security and HIPAA compliance
• The GrowPractice software helps increase patient engagement
• GrowPractice focus on reducing patients' wait times and minimizing no-shows
• It helps streamline patient workflow
• It removes integration problems with EHR/PM software
• It helps increase patient experience and boost patient satisfaction rate
• It improves practice revenues
