The Impact of Virtual Reality in Healthcare
Disciplines
Health Information Technology
Abstract (300 words maximum)
The Impact of Virtual Reality in Healthcare
Virtual Reality (VR) redefines healthcare, offering immersive, interactive, and multisensory experiences across various fields. This review examines the core uses of VR in pain management, rehabilitation, mental health, and medical education, highlighting its advantages. VR has proven to be a powerful non-drug alternative, alleviating both acute and chronic pain. VR boosts patient engagement and motor restoration through personalized and immersive therapies in rehabilitation. Like pain management and rehabilitation, VR is used for anxiety reduction, addressing PTSD, phobias, and stress, with interactive tools enhancing traditional cognitive-behavioral techniques. VR also has the potential to enhance medical training by simulating complex procedures, improving learning effectiveness, and reshaping clinical skills.
However, the technology’s high expense, limited accessibility, and usability concerns, such as motion sickness and discomfort with VR devices, create hurdles; these are barriers to VR in the health sector. In medical education, challenges such as the authenticity of patient interactions and the difficulty in tracking learner performance limit broader acceptance. Additionally, research is limited by small participant samples and the necessity for more extensive validation studies.
VR demonstrates significant potential in revolutionizing healthcare by providing engaging, patient-centered solutions that enhance both educational and therapeutic results despite these obstacles. Ongoing research and developments in VR technology are essential for the complete combination of these innovations in clinical and educational settings.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
CCSE - Information Technology
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Dr. Maria Valero
The Impact of Virtual Reality in Healthcare
The Impact of Virtual Reality in Healthcare
Virtual Reality (VR) redefines healthcare, offering immersive, interactive, and multisensory experiences across various fields. This review examines the core uses of VR in pain management, rehabilitation, mental health, and medical education, highlighting its advantages. VR has proven to be a powerful non-drug alternative, alleviating both acute and chronic pain. VR boosts patient engagement and motor restoration through personalized and immersive therapies in rehabilitation. Like pain management and rehabilitation, VR is used for anxiety reduction, addressing PTSD, phobias, and stress, with interactive tools enhancing traditional cognitive-behavioral techniques. VR also has the potential to enhance medical training by simulating complex procedures, improving learning effectiveness, and reshaping clinical skills.
However, the technology’s high expense, limited accessibility, and usability concerns, such as motion sickness and discomfort with VR devices, create hurdles; these are barriers to VR in the health sector. In medical education, challenges such as the authenticity of patient interactions and the difficulty in tracking learner performance limit broader acceptance. Additionally, research is limited by small participant samples and the necessity for more extensive validation studies.
VR demonstrates significant potential in revolutionizing healthcare by providing engaging, patient-centered solutions that enhance both educational and therapeutic results despite these obstacles. Ongoing research and developments in VR technology are essential for the complete combination of these innovations in clinical and educational settings.