VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTHCARE

Abstract

The healthcare industry has become a big adopter of Virtual Reality (VR) technology. This paper demonstrates how healthcare and medical professionals can use VR technology for surgery and personal development, and also how physically and mentally disabled people can benefit from the innovative VR techniques. The purpose of this research is to examine the innovative healthcare applications that can be provided with VR technology in the health sector and to provide conceptual information about whether these applications are good alternatives. For this purpose, the relationship of VR technology with the health sector has been examined through a literature review, and the results have been revealed in a comparative manner. The projects of VR healthcare companies around the world and the experiences of hospitals implementing VR Health projects were scanned and the reasons for choosing the technology in question were examined. When using VR technology, the concept of telepresence makes the user feel “inside” and this technology has turned out to be an experience tool. The research findings indicate that the results of health applications made with VR technology are successful in making people feel that experience. In particular, VR health applications enable disabled individuals to reach everywhere without any restrictions or difficulties. The findings reveal that VR health applications can be a strong alternative to classical therapy activities in the field of the healthcare sector during PTSD processes. This descriptive study has been comprised of visualization of complex forms of surgery or treatment and their implementations of virtual environments to the different types of VR usage of treatments. Finally, the use of VR in healthcare has shown that VR is a useful tool for diagnosis, treatment, therapy, education, and training.