Extended Reality in Medicine

Extended reality is being used in an expanding variety of medical settings, enhancing the entire healthcare process. In medicine areas, XR technologies can be applied to areas such as surgical planning, medical training, patient therapy, and remote healthcare. It provides engaging and interactive 3D experiences for practicing procedures, learning about anatomy, and rehabilitating patients, along with improved communication and new telehealth and computer health options.

In this article, we will examine the current state of XR technology in the healthcare sector and anticipate its future developments.

Medical XR: Where Are We?

Medical XR is now a well-established sub-feature of mainstream medicine, and it is growing fast. Currently, Medical XR is prominent in such diverse fields as:

• Training. XR excels in training difficult procedures and provides experienced surgical education, enhancing surgeons’ total skill proficiency. Research from UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine observed a 230% enhancement in overall performance in tibial intramedullary nailing, a method for repairing a broken tibia, among VR-trained surgeons compared to their traditionally trained colleagues. 
• Medical visualisation. XR enables surgeons to visualise a patient’s organs, tumours, X-rays, and ultrasounds in real time from various perspectives without diverting their focus from the patient. Surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic are utilising Microsoft’s HoloLens to superimpose virtual, three-dimensional representations of patients’ anatomies on their bodies, enhancing efficiency and decreasing operation duration. The use of XR enables doctors and consultants to evaluate patient information with enhanced detail and increased efficiency. And of course, XR systems can be allied to hospital imaging systems like MRI and x-ray via AI, so the doctor could be looking at the patient’s real condition, rather than a representation.
• Surgical practice. XR enables medical students to practice their skills repeatedly in realistic virtual environments. Students at UC San Francisco use XR systems to practice the dynamic removal of tissue layers and organ structures without posing any risks to patients. In contrast to conventional cadaver-based training models, virtual environments replicate the motions and responses of living patients, thereby reducing errors and enhancing health results.
• Management of pain and trauma. Medical professionals and researchers are excitedly investigating the potential of virtual reality as a sustainable and safe alternative to opioids for pain management. XR influences patients’ affective states and attention to pain, effectively preventing pain signals from reaching the brain. A study of patients with neuropathic pain discovered a 69% reduction in pain during XR sessions and a 53% reduction immediately following those sessions. Those figures are sufficient to convince medical practitioners that XR has a major place in pain management.
• Mental health treatment. XR is being used to assist military veterans who are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—particularly those who have not responded favourably to conventional treatments. In a recent study conducted under the guidance of qualified therapists, emergency services personnel and soldiers who were in the process of recuperating from traumatic experiences used a treadmill to interact with images that were selected to represent their experiences. After three months, individuals who received XR treatment reported a 19% reduction in PTSD symptoms in comparison to their non-treatment counterparts.

These areas are vital to procedural and rehabilitative medicine, and their potential is still in its infancy. With high-spec XR equipment readily available, it is now significantly cheaper to introduce XR solutions to many areas of medicine and healthcare. So, we know where we are at the moment, but where is XR likely to lead us as medical intervention becomes stronger and more patient-focused?

Medical XR: What Next?

The biggest problem with trying to understand where XR in medicine will go is that both fields— medicine and XR – are subject to enormous technological change. Medicine is one of the biggest research and investment fields on the planet, and it has a tendency to capitalise on existing strengths. If we look at just one area of medicine – cancer treatment – we can see that there have been enormous developments over the last ten years.

These significant improvements in cancer understanding and treatment, are driven by precision medicine—treatments based on genetic information—immunotherapy that boosts the immune system against cancer, and the use of AI and liquid biopsies for quicker and more accurate diagnoses. 

They have enhanced therapy specificity, diminished side effects, and facilitated a sustained reduction in overall cancer mortality rates. Almost every field of medicine reflects this trend, and our new knowledge propels further investigations. Now, XR has the potential to help researchers visualise interactions between treatments and cancerous cells, leading to an even greater understanding. From understanding comes solutions.

We are also seeing similar growth in XR devices and software being used in surgical procedures. In the past decade, advancements in VR/AR have concentrated on standalone and mixed reality headsets, resulting in enhanced display clarity, tracking precision, and wireless functionality. This means that XR can routinely be used in surgical theatres, allowing busy consultants to oversee junior surgeons from anywhere in the world.

Significant advancements encompass the implementation of inside-out tracking and foveated rendering which renders a high-resolution image only where the user is looking, while lowering the resolution in the peripheral vision to save processing power. Furthermore controller-free hand tracking, and enhanced resolutions and refresh rates are also making XR an attractive option in medicine. These advancements have rendered virtual reality more immersive, comfortable, and accessible to a wider audience via both standalone and wirelessly transmitted experiences. 

Putting these fast-moving areas of technology together is likely to produce a whole lot more surprises in the next two years, let alone the next ten. In fact, they are both so fast-moving that it is difficult to make any kind of solid predictions, but let’s have a go anyway.

XR in Healthcare: The Probable Future

It is obvious that we are going to see a continuation of existing trends, perhaps with more perceptiveness and improved results. Over the next decade, virtual reality will profoundly transform medicine via enhanced medical training, patient treatment and pain management, as well as superior medical visualisations for diagnosis and surgical planning. Healthcare professionals will most likely use realistic simulations to practice complex surgeries and improve their ability to diagnose, while patients will gain from XR-assisted therapy, pain relief techniques, and more engaging medical experiences. 

Much of what the XR can do in medical activities will depend on its parameters. We are currently used to wearing headsets to access our XR activities, but there is a strong move towards smaller, glasses-based products that are easier to use and more convenient when used with other medical equipment such as face masks. It would be a stretch to use current-sized XR headsets in a full surgical environment, but glasses of the size of the Virtue One product could easily be worn in the theatre and could provide enormous benefits.

But though we are currently talking about a move from headsets to glasses, consider a further reduction in technology. We have extensively discussed smart contact lenses like the Mojo products, and there’s no reason to think augmented visual technology is headed this way. The Mojo technology used to be unique, but now there are a number of teams and companies working on reducing visual technology down to contact lens size but retaining most of the functionality found with current headsets. 

Of course, smart contact lenses probably wouldn’t allow for an immersive world and are more likely to be used to overlay information onto the real world.  For that reason, they would be of more value to medical practitioners rather than patients. Those requiring the help of XR – such as for therapy or other mental health issues – are more likely to benefit from larger headsets that encompass the eyes completely and augment the virtual experience.  That said, in the next few years, we expect fully enclosed headsets to become smaller and lighter while becoming significantly more powerful in terms of graphics and content delivery.  

The future is likely to change from our current expectations about its direction. A new technology – such as ultra-thin polymer displays – could become a dominant technology in XR, making future developments something else entirely. The only way to really keep up with what is happening in these exciting industries and technologies is to check back regularly with us here at Unity Developers.

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