VR is increasingly being used in healthcare, from training medical students to treating patients with mental health conditions. VR can provide a realistic and immersive environment for learning complex procedures or practicing difficult tasks. It can also be used to expose people to scenarios that may be too dangerous or distressing to experience in real life, such as treating soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
While most people associate virtual reality (VR) with gaming and entertainment, VR technology can also be increasingly used in medicine. VR can be used to provide immersive educational experiences for medical students or to help surgeons rehearse complex procedures, it can be used as a pain management tool, by distracting patients from their pain while they undergo treatment. In addition, VR is being used to create realistic simulations of patients’ homes, so that health care professionals can learn how to best meet their needs and as VR technology continues to evolve, it is likely that its applications in medicine will become even more widespread.
