Immersive technology has the potential to change the entire landscape of many industries. While it is best known in the gaming industry, it can play an essential role in other sectors like energy, medicine, and healthcare. In recent years, immersive technology is gaining lots of attention in the UK's healthcare sector. Uses can range from improving patient experiences and surgical planning to the training of healthcare workers. So, what is immersive technology? How exactly is it being used to change the way healthcare workers are trained?
Immersive technology is anything that utilises 360-degree space to extend reality or create a new reality. In present times, the applications that use augmented virtual reality and so on, are the best-known as immersive technologies. It helps transform a digital experience, almost making those using them part of an alternative environment. This can be leveraged to further hands-on education, allowing educators to provide virtual classrooms. These virtual classrooms can model any environment. This can help to give learners the opportunity to familiarise themselves in the places they’ll be working in, whilst also maintaining the safety of them and others.
The UK boasts one of the largest immersive technology industries in the world. Its contribution to the national GDP was £1.8 billion last year. In fact, it is predicted to add £316.3 billion to the global GDP by 2030. This will account for more than 20% of the total contribution of the industry. A major part of the UK healthcare sector that reaps the benefits of immersive technology is the training of healthcare staff and medical students. Here are some of the benefits:
1. Accessibility and Flexible learning
Immersive technology like virtual reality, allows people to learn with virtual equipment that can be easily transported and from anywhere in the world. This increases the overall accessibility to knowledge while also providing a hands-on method to learn. What’s more, individual learners can interact with one another without having to be in the same place or indeed the same country, giving learners access to experts that may otherwise be difficult to access.
2. Changing the Delivery of Knowledge
Learners no longer need to depend on 2-D learning and shadowing instructors during a procedure. They can carry out the procedure themselves with the help of augmented or virtual reality. This enhances the level of training given to learners. Research has linked the use of immersive technology to deliver training, with benefits including higher knowledge retention rates, increased learner engagement and improved organisational efficiencies.
3. Simulate Emergency Scenarios
Using immersive technology to simulate emergency scenarios can be particularly useful when those emergency scenarios in real life happen infrequently or carry a high level of risk. Healthcare staff and students can be exposed to the emotion and risk associated within emergency scenarios in safe and controlled virtual environments. Being able to repeatedly practice emergency scenarios can also afford learners the opportunity to reflect on their learning and try again.
What’s next?
Immersive technology is likely to increasingly blur the lines between reality and virtual reality. As hardware continues to evolve and become more accessible for mass adoption, healthcare providers are likely to continue to switch from traditional methods of learning in favour of new technology. Afterall, the arrival of COVID-19 has certainly boosted what was a steady attraction to more virtual ways of working to a markedly rapid acceleration of interest in immersive tech. The next 5 years is likely to be an exciting period of growth for immersive technology. If its true potential can be harnessed to improve staff training, this will have significant positive implications on patient care and the health of people around the world.