Virtual Reality Technology Finds Promising Market in Healthcare

Healthcare virtual reality (VR) applications have experienced double-digit growth both worldwide, and in the United States since the turn of the century, and the 2010 U.S. market for virtual reality in surgery, medical education, therapy, and other areas will grow to US$290 million, according to a recent report.

New analysis from life-science research firm Kalorama Information (New York, NY, USA) reported that the long driving force in the entertainment, gaming, and engineering industries, virtual reality applications have revolutionized the global healthcare industry. More accurate and sophisticated than traditional two-dimensional scans, VR applications provide opportunities to perform medical tasks in a risk-free environment and make training assessable to large numbers of students. Furthermore, VR simulators allow medical professionals to remain up-to-date on the latest technical procedures required in their profession.

Current VR applications assist in numerous modalities from preoperative planning and robot-assisted surgery to medical curricula to teach anatomy of body parts, and the visualization of medical data that can be integrated and simulated into three-dimensional (3D) models to gather insights into the cause and effects of injuries. VR is even finding uses in therapeutics for pain and depression to replace or reduce pharmaceutical usage in these cases.

"While still at a very nascent stage of commercialization, VR technologies are being widely used by the [U.S.] Department of Defense, medical schools and hospitals, and manufacturers of medical equipment on a variety of levels with significant benefit,” noted Steven Heffner, executive publisher of Kalorama Information. "The establishment of industry standards should lead to rapid commercialization of products, and ongoing technological advancements will only further the market, particularly in the surgery segment.”


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Kalorama Information