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Nowadays, Virtual Reality is omnipresent in the worlds of gaming and amusement, but the opportunity for VR to change many areas of healthcare is boundless. So what are the advantages of VR in the healthcare? The list of advantages is ongoing, but here are some examples:

First there is the VR medical training. Medical students can perform ‘hands on’ techniques, but in a safe and controlled environment. They are allowed to make mistakes without any risk to the virtual patient they are working with. As a result, they will obtain skills in which they can apply to the real world.

Next, the medical VR helps chronic patients relaxing. With the special goggles, it is possible to let the patients view different things, letting them escape from the boring hospital for a while. They can, for example, choose to visit some amazing landscapes in Japan, or swim together with dolphins in the deep blue ocean. This does not only improve the hospital experience, but it also lowers the costs of care.

Another advantage is pain management. For example, a study from the University of Washington has shown that a VR video game helps distracting burn victims from their pain. In the game, they have to throw snowballs at penguins while listening to a song of Paul Simon. According to some military soldiers with burn injuries, the game works even better than morphine.

Overall, VR in the healthcare is still very new in terms of breakthrough treatment paradigms and extensive medical adoption and use. Only through lots of designed and controlled human trials will help the innovators in this field providing evidence for medical efficacy. Together with deep learning, artificial intelligence and big data analytics, the future looks very interesting.

 

 

Sources:

http://frogdesign.com/techtrends2016/

http://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality-healthcare/advantages.html

http://medicalfuturist.com/5-ways-medical-vr-is-changing-healthcare/

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-ways-virtual-reality-is-revolutionizing-medicine-and-healthcare/

Virtual Reality In Healthcare: Where’s The Innovation?

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When it comes to capturing headlines with visions of the future, not many can beat Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind SpaceX, the rocket company that he build to accomplish his dream to colonize Mars. Most people will probably known him for his Tesla electric cars, already established its popularity in the US.

It must be very exciting to see how the future will look like with powerful rockets and fast cars, but our way of living will likely changed by something much more simple – Tesla’s Powerwall. This basic white battery might not be as dazzling as Musk’s other products, but it could have a far bigger impact on society than we think. Tesla’s Powerwall aims to harness energy from renewable sources and offer it to the household.

The concept is simple; when energy from traditional suppliers is expensive at peak times, the batteries in home will release its energy. When demand is lower, this cheap electricity generated by the Powerwall will be stored up. Not only will electricity costs be reduced, the batteries could also be used as an emergency back-up if the main network crashes (Martin, 2015).

The system does not only solve the problems on micro-level. Wind and solar farms face the problem with the produced energy when there is no demand and no place to store it. With this battery, the problem is easily solved. Also, as energy is conducted from large power stations, the battery could relieve the current strain on the transmission grid. But most importantly, fully utilizing the green energy will help the world lessen its reliance on fossil fuels (Tovey, 2016).

This whole idea might seem a little far-fetched right now, but it is becoming a more a more real prospect. Lets see if Musk can make the Tesla’s Powerwall as common as a television in every living room.

Sources:

Tovey, 2016. Home energy storage is the driving force of the future. [online]. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/15/home-energy-storage-is-the-driving-force-of-the-future-claims-te/ [Accessed 06-10-2016].

Martin, 2016. Home energy storage enters a new era. [online]. Available at: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/541336/home-energy-storage-enters-a-new-era/ [Accessed 06-10-2016].