XR solutions prove vital to modern healthcare
Extended reality (XR) technologies present healthcare practitioners with new opportunities to provide quality care. Whether they provide medical students with a greater awareness of human body systems or help upskill surgeons on the latest medical technologies, immersive healthcare experiences can improve patient outcomes, accelerate learning, and prevent injury in clinical settings.
Let’s take a look at the medical innovators whose tech-forward solutions are elevating the quality of care across the healthcare industry with XR solutions designed for these use cases:
- Surgical robotics simulations
- Interactive clinical briefings
- 3D anatomical visualizations
Surgical robotics simulations
One of the most widely adopted use cases for XR medtech is virtual reality (VR) training simulations. These immersive applications are designed to enhance education pathways and improve patient outcomes during clinical interventions, which is especially important in high-risk surgical settings.
Teaching fundamental techniques requires precision and realism. As robotics-assisted surgery expands, VirtaMed’s VR surgical robotics console is preparing tomorrow’s surgeons with risk-free training. But before taking medical students out of the operating room, VirtaMed had to be sure their solution could replicate the nuanced interactions of complex surgical interventions.
VirtaMed’s development team chose Unity to simplify their workflow, accelerate iteration, and run robust simulations in real time. Unity’s High Definition Render Pipeline granted modelers an extensive range of parameters to configure realistic visuals and textures, while Articulation Body components from the Unity Physics package helped implement precise rotation and collision interactions necessary to simulate surgical processes such as incision and binding.
When it was time to deploy, Unity’s multiplatform extensibility simplified the process of interfacing with specialized medical devices. By leveraging data-backed anatomical models in hardware-agnostic configurations, VirtaMed’s VR training environments can empower surgeons to master key techniques and pursue continuing skill development in a variety of settings.
Improving patient outcomes
The more complex the clinical intervention, the more important it is to allay patients’ fears with detailed explanations of care itineraries. As immersive technologies continue to reshape surgical education, they are also proving valuable in enhancing patient communication.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (CCH) created an interactive surgical training tool that found a more surprising use case as an immersive virtual experience for patients.
The tools were initially designed to enable imaging teams to quickly respond to clinical requests for 3D visualizations. Unity helped their development team build custom data-ingestion pipelines that could process anatomical data from imaging studies and dynamically build accurate, detailed 3D meshes. This allowed CCH teams to create high-fidelity 3D models on the same day.
These interactive anatomical models helped medical professionals plan surgical interventions in a personalized VR application and illustrate those processes to patients in real time.
In a shared virtual space, pediatric surgeons and younger patients can navigate realistic anatomical diagrams to understand and plan procedures together or guide an adorable heart-shaped mascot through the steps of a medical intervention. It’s become a vital tool for building trust during patient consultations.
Watch a presentation from CCH.
3D anatomical visualization
Extended reality applications can be equally useful as a supplemental knowledge base for medical professionals. Developers at Galderma built an immersive VR platform that displays detailed anatomical visualizations, helping to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and clinical application for dermatological professionals.
Galderma Aesthetics traditionally relied on 2D photographs and diagrams to supplement infrequent training sessions with cadavers. To increase the impact of their educational programs, Galderma sought the technical expertise of Sector 5 Digital (S5D), a boutique creative agency with broad experience in building software solutions.
The agency chose Unity for its ease in prototyping realistic 3D anatomy models and displaying them from multiple perspectives. Unity's component-based scripting allowed custom features, like peeling back skin layers to reveal muscles.
These interactive 3D visualizations are enhanced by a responsive in-app interface, offering more precision than traditional 2D assets for dermatological training. Unity's multiplatform support also ensures that the Galderma Interactive Anatomy (GIA) app is scalable and easily updated, making it an ideal tool for improving aesthetic procedure training.
The future of healthcare
As immersive XR technologies continue to evolve, their utility in modern healthcare settings becomes all the more apparent. From virtual training scenarios for surgeons to interactive patient consultations, XR tools benefit both medical education and clinical practice.
By creating environments that closely mimic real-world anatomy, these technologies help medical professionals prepare themselves and their patients for vital medical interventions.
To learn more about Unity in medical applications, please visit our healthcare resources page.
