1. Positive impact on the surgeon and medical training
Virtual reality (VR), is now emerging as a viable training tool in the healthcare profession.
Because of VR’s interactive nature, medical & dental students benefit from virtual hands-on training, practicing surgeries and procedures avoiding the risk of making a mistake on real patients. VR offers a way to understand human anatomy in depth before treating live patients in a dental or dental hygiene educational setting.
Aside from creating realistic renditions of anatomical structures, simulators re-create all of the tactile sensations experienced during procedures. They provide accessories to supplement instruments for grasping and palpating tissues so that clinicians can truly feel while performing the procedures.
The power of learning by doing
Learning through hands-on application, rather than absorbing knowledge by listening or reading captures our attention. Experiential learning is immersive and hands-on, therefore it captures our attention and helps us grow our critical thinking, creativity, socio-emotional intelligence, and complex reasoning skills. A study conducted at the University of Chicago in 2015 showed that students who experience a science concept by doing experiments understood more and scored better on tests. With the use of brain scans, they found that hands-on training activates sensory and motor-related areas of the brain. One step further, the US National Training Laboratory found that retention rates for training through VR are 75% far above the 10% for reading-based learning and the 5%percent for lecture-style learning.
“VR is the most attention-grabbing experiential tool as it offers the closest experience to reality”
Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel, Washington University’s Professors claimed that active, experiential learning helps the brain form new connections more easily while Manolis Mavrikis, Director of the Education and Technology MA, in UCLS believes that technology is a natural ally for experiential learning with unique opportunities as it offers people ways to experience what they learn but in a safe and controlled environment. Source: Accenture
2. VR in events and meetings defines a new business era
VR has the potential to bring digital workers together in digital meetings and conferences with real-time event coverage. Workers won’t have to travel to make decisions and complete projects. For example, architects from across the globe can use virtual reality to evaluate designs.
Do you prefer attending cultural to business events?
With VR, no one will feel excluded from a big sports or music event due to lack of time or money as he can enjoy the same experience remotely with VR goggles, either for free or at a lesser cost.
Regarding the use of VR, you can find more information in our article “Incredible use of VR across a range of fields”
3. Positive impact on time, money, and environment
VR can save organizations time and money and make work more convenient. If there is no need to travel for work, the carbon footprint of our trips will be highly reduced. Even shopping will be less time-consuming with VR, as shoppers can try on clothes and shoes in a virtual shop.
4. Positive impact on Society & Mental Health
Virtual reality technology can provide a safe environment for patients to come into contact with things they fear, whilst remaining in a controlled and safe environment. This is just one of the ways VR can become a primary method for treating post-traumatic stress. Using VR exposure therapy, a person enters a re-enactment of a traumatic event in an attempt to come to terms with the event and heal. For example, some patients with anxiety find meditating using VR to be an effective method to manage stress reactivity and boost coping mechanisms. Virtual reality can also be particularly beneficial for students with special needs, such as autism, as it enhances the training of social skills. Read more on this subject here .
