In order to provide the best patient outcomes possible, hospitals and healthcare providers need to leverage the latest technology available.
Recently, virtual reality has become a fascinating option for a variety of medical use cases, from nurse training to drug design and much more.
Here we’re exploring how seven major hospitals and healthcare providers are using virtual reality to great effect.
Great Ormond Street Hospital – Training With 3D Anatomical Models
London’s world-leading Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has embraced virtual reality, using it to transform and improve clinical training and patient care – achieving things that would be otherwise impossible.
In partnership with engineers from University College London, the hospital developed VheaRts, a VR platform which provides an extensive, customizable library of virtual 3D contents to supplement and enrich traditional anatomy lectures, surgical meetings, or patient consultations.
The power of the VheaRts platform was shown when paediatric cardiologists and surgeons in Johannesburg, South Africa were able to seamlessly attend a virtual workshop on congenital heart disease with Professor Andrew Cook in London, without the time and cost of in-person meetings and without disrupting their clinical services.
Using VR means the hospital can improve the communication and understanding of complex disease and surgical techniques that textbooks and computer screens “simply cannot match”.
LifeArc – Using 3D VR models for drug design
LifeArc, a medical research charity, is dedicated to supporting people facing rare diseases and tackling global health challenges. As part of this mission, LifeArc partnered with Meta and implemented virtual reality as part of its drug design workflow.
The charity’s medical chemists used the Nanome platform to draw drug designs in 3D space and receive feedback on their molecules in real-time, with information presented visually in an easy-to-understand way.
Moreover, one chemist’s design could easily be shared with the rest of the LifeArc team, with Principal Scientist Timur Avkiran stating that “one person can drive easily and you can have ten people in there with you. You can teleport them virtually, so they’re standing in your shoes, looking from the exact same viewpoint as you”.
This powerful implementation of VR at LifeArc transformed the charity’s drug design process, improving chemists’ spatial awareness between molecules and their targets, helping to create improved drugs. VR has been pivotal in supporting LifeArc’s work on important projects such as the exploration of protein degradation and development of new chemical matters.
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Detecting Sepsis With VR
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is always willing to utilize the latest and greatest in technology. Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is continuing that trend, working with training platform Goggleminds and the University of Bath to help train staff and students to spot the signs and symptoms of sepsis.
The platform is used to develop immersive training simulations that allow medical students from Oxford University to practice diagnosing and treating patients with sepsis, as well as asthma and anaphylaxis.
These VR training simulations help doctors and students learn the key skills necessary for identifying sepsis, a life-threatening condition.
Additionally, leveraging VR allows more doctors to be taught outside of hospital training rooms in a safe, realistic environment, increasing efficiency.
“The great thing about being able to place students and junior doctors in an immersive environment using this technology is that it can be used outside of ward areas, and it is helping to upskill our staff and students, to get the early identification of sepsis for our patients”, said Dr Chris Jacobs, Undergraduate Tutor to medical students at the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
UConn Health – Orthopaedic Training Through VR
Virtual reality has opened up a new way of approaching orthopaedic training at the University of Connecticut Health (UConn Health).
In partnership with Meta, UConn Health replaced expensive, time-consuming cadaver practice with immersive, intelligent VR training that allows the orthopaedic department to train doctors more efficiently than ever.
Virtual reality gives doctors the ability to work on their 3D spatial awareness, a critical skill for orthopaedic surgeons as they prepare for the operating room.
Using this Meta Quest-enabled training solution has helped train orthopaedic staff up to 570% faster than if a traditional approach had been used.
According to Dr. Augustus Mazzocca, who helps train residents in orthopaedic surgery as the Director of the Musculoskeletal Institute at UConn Health, “the magic part for us is that we can go over an entire case multiple times. I can connect via computer and see what the residents are seeing — I become their eyes. I can see how quickly they’re looking at things, what they’re looking at, and how they’re reacting to various situations.”
Virtual reality’s incredible potential in healthcare settings is on full display at UConn Health thanks to their partnership with Meta.
Mount Vernon Hospital – Using VR for Patient Pain Relief
Physicians at nationally-recognized Inova Mount Vernon Hospital in Virginia, U.S.A were seeking non-pharmalogical ways to reduce patient pain and anxiety, and landed on an innovative, virtual reality-based approach with the help of Samsung and AppliedVR.
Patients are supplied with Samsung Gear VR headsets, allowing them to immerse themselves in a library of guided meditations, 360-degree tours of beautiful locations, and immersive games – all designed to distract the patient during and after medical procedures.
Since introducing this VR technology into its two emergency departments, Mount Vernon Hospital has seen:
- Improved health outcomes
- Enhanced patient experiences
- Reduced costs
- Stronger competitive differentiation
The use of VR as non-pharmaceutical pain relief helps reduce patient stress and improve their experience in the ER, without requiring medication that can introduce new layers of risk.
Dr. Everett Embrey, chairman of the emergency department at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital, highlighted VR’s usefulness with pediatric patients: “Children tend to be concerned about whether they’ll get stuck with a needle or whatever might happen to them, and even something like putting an IV in or cleaning a wound can make them more anxious than adults. Using virtual reality equipment really helps relieve their stress and anxiety.”
This impressive program provides a look at the innovative ways in which virtual reality can be incorporated into healthcare settings and bring great results.
NHS Blood and Transplant – Blood Transfusion Matching with VR
As we’ve already seen in this article, the NHS is ready and willing to use new technology like VR to improve results. The NHS’ Blood and Transplant department (NHSBT) is no different.
In 2024, NHSBT released a virtual reality training app which realistically simulates the process of testing blood for lifesaving blood transfusion, opening up its world-leading training to more students interested in a career in biomedical or transfusion science.
During this VR training, learners meet a patient and enter a virtual transfusion laboratory, working through the entire transfusion process, before receiving feedback on how well they performed. NHSBT recommends the app to secondary schools, colleges, and universities to help inspire young people’s interest in the field, by making training hands-on and engaging.
Ruth Evans, Scientific and Clinical Training and Education Lead for NHSBT said: “We’ve already discovered how much students on our own Introductory Blood Transfusion Science and Master’s degree courses have responded to using the app and the flexibility it allows in being able to learn effectively without a physical laboratory. This VR training complements our existing education programmes at NHS Blood and Transplant and demonstrates our innovative ongoing approach to training and education”.
As highlighted by NHSBT, blood transfusion training is lifesaving, and it’s inspiring to see this made more accessible through virtual reality.
America’s Essential Hospitals – Supporting Nurse Readiness with VR
America’s Essential Hospitals represents nearly 400 nonprofit and public hospitals dedicated to caring for underserved and vulnerable communities in the United States. The group partnered with Osso VR, a platform dedicated to training doctors and nurses using virtual reality.
This partnership aims to broaden training access for essential hospitals, and support the nurses working in these vital roles.
As Osso VR highlighted, for resource-constrained hospitals with limited training access, this partnership provides a sustainable and measurable way to prepare nurses with practical skills – while respecting the realities of strained budgets and staffing.
America’s Essential Hospitals’ use of VR training helps train nurses faster and more accurately than traditional methods, helping to decrease nurse burnout and enhance patient care and retention.
Bringing VR Training to Your Organization
If you want to take the next step and implement VR training in your organization, get in touch and find out how VirtualSpeech’s award-winning soft skills training – covering areas such as difficult conversations with patients – can support your teams.
