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The extended reality, or what we typically refer to as XR technology, is growing by leaps and bounds. If you think it's only helping the gaming industry with its impeccable user experience, you might have forgotten about all the transformations in medicine or patient care. In fact, it might grow up to $10.82 billion at a CAGR of 36.1% by 2026. 

But why is so much hype around these technologies within healthcare? It's simple! It's helping the industry present new ways to get past the limitations and serve patients in a better and more personalized way. 

Clearly, immersive technologies have gained a lot of traction in the last few years because of the evolving digital space. Interestingly, the healthcare sector is beginning to understand its potential. After all, there are so many applications of XR, and many believe that it will create an opportunity to improve patient care and the delivery of care continuously. 

In this article, you will find a lot of potential of this technology in the healthcare space. Let's learn more about it!

XR has positive impacts on mindfulness

This might come out as a surprise for those who are still unaware of mindfulness or meditation using technology. XR can be pretty helpful in increasing the positive effects of such options. This can help patients destress and meditate while using XR technology. For instance, if you add VR to meditation, you can make it more immersive. 

In fact, Guided Meditation VR is an app where you get around 100 ready-made meditations in some beautiful settings. It could be a beach, a secluded forest with some gentle audio for instructions. This is helpful for people who cannot tune out the real world. All you have to do is put on a VR headset and use a VR meditation app and block everything out. 

XR streamlines medical data visualization 

Let's take an example. You want to visualize medical information. However, it is too complex to overlay anatomical data and align it with the patient. However, you can easily do this with an AR and carry out procedures much faster and more accurately. 

For instance, AccuVein helps you to visualize veins. In this, an overlay of veins is placed on the patient's skin to find veins more easily. It could be helpful for IVs and drawing blood. It is pretty beneficial in pediatric cases and adult patients.

XR improves treatment outcomes

Besides creating relaxing, stimulating environments, it is quite helpful in reducing pain and improving the patient's experience when admitted to a hospital. You will be surprised to know that a team in Brazil is already using this technology to help children with the fear of vaccinations. This VR approach blocks and distracts them from the needles. But that's not all! Using this technology, even adult patients under regional anesthetic can stay calm and relaxed during surgery. 

Here are some use cases that will help you better understand its applications in healthcare. 

Healthcare-centric use cases

1. XR helps make patients feel better. A university in Canada used a VR-based game that helped cancer patients during chemotherapy and distracted them from the pain. Thus, assisting providers in boosting interpersonal relationships. 
2. XR enables surgeons to build surgery simulators for training purposes. Immersive technologies also help create an extended reality for the purpose of training medical practitioners. Further, this technology is helping with medical education. For instance, one can improve the learning experience of medical students using anatomical holographs. Thus, improving knowledge retention compared to the current education style. 
3. XR helps prepare surgeons before actual surgeries. For instance, they can use it to prepare themselves and train others before the actual surgery. 3D replicas can be generated using it, and one can check how to cut, draw, and develop the real operation procedure. For instance, Dr. Dimitri Amiras of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust used this technology during leg reconstruction surgery. They generated a 3D model of the leg, which guided them through the operation. 
4. XR could help diagnose health conditions in patients. Using this technology, a doctor can create a 3D model to detect a patient's illnesses. Moreover, images using this technology can help doctors craft a step-by-step process. 
5. XR is helpful for pharma companies to communicate about their work on new drugs to stakeholders and customers. This can help them make others understand how a drug interacts with a patient's body.
6. It could help practitioners understand their medical condition using a visual representation. This enables patients to make informed decisions to understand their medical condition better.

But that's not all! 

Extended reality is more than just helping doctors in surgeries or medical education. It could be helpful in the following ways:

• It helps promote healthy lifestyles. You can train from anywhere and anytime using this technology. One could monitor and push their patients to take up healthy diets. It can also motivate patients to take up physical therapies and exercises to complete their recovery. 

• It helps providers by surgery visualization, patient insights, patient rehabilitation, medical training, addressing global epidemics, telemedicine, and so much more. 

• It can also help device manufacturers with operating training, device maintenance and troubleshooting, and other materials.

In short, the healthcare industry is quite complex. But this technology enables everyone to demystify the complexities and make it easy to understand and create the next steps quickly.

Final Takeaways: The Future of XR technology is bright in the healthcare space

Extended reality is quite helpful in many ways. However, its abilities are yet not decoded to their full potential. But what is more exciting is that it is transforming healthcare by continuously enhancing patient experiences and delivering medical care. It is realigning our beliefs on how and where healthcare should take place. With XR, you can expect lower costs, better medical outcomes, and a higher success rate of acceptance of these technologies. One can expect better results and better healthcare practices in the coming future. So, are you using this technology? If not, what's stopping you? Be an early adopter and create a competitive advantage.