VR HealthE
Case Study
VR HEALTHE
AR APP DEVELOPMENT
VRPOLE developed VRHealthE project to be showcased in largest health conference held in Barcelona, Spain. We have been approached by a leading Plastic Surgeon and Surgical Oncologist to engage in a project whose goal was to emphasize the importance of good doctor–patient relationship. This relationship is a precondition for optimal care and treatment. Satisfaction with the doctor–patient relationship is a critical factor in people’s decisions to join and staywith a specific organization. Doctors’ interpersonal and communication skills correlate with improved health care outcomes.
VR HEALTHE
THE PROJECT
The goal was to create a combination of NFC (near-field communication) interactive e-brochures that interacts with a custom developed AR (augmented reality) application that implements a better system of doctor–patient communication. A VR Health Experience (VR Health-E) is a novel method that improves doctors’ communication skills and patients information clarity. The background of the project is that Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women. About 1 in 8 women will develop BC during their lifetime. As of March 2017, there are more than 3.1 million women with a history of breast cancer in the U.S. This includes women currently being treated and women who have finished treatment. Patient needs to cope with their illness and for most of them this is one of the most difficult situations in their life.
VR HEALTHE
THE CHALLENGE
Overall objective of this project was to create and implement a Augmented Reality Healthcare application for doctors and patients. Till today the use of XR technologies in Clinical Practice were used only for studying the human body & operation techniques and patient pain release. The results showed recognition that use of XR is different from anything experienced before. The patient almost always give a positive feedback to the experience.
There is very few data that reported the usage of XR Experiences to help the doctor to better explain disease treatment, recovery and how to encoring patients’ health.
VRHealthE was the start of that journey. VRHealthE is composed of AR applications (breast anatomy, disease explanation, treatment and breast reconstruction option and health encouraging methods) with standard “familiar” brochures with NFC tags containing additional digital information on how to use the digital brochure. The whole content inside the project is also applicable to desktop, smartphone, tablet, or gadgets.
Finally, we delivered the project, where we have produced the VR Health-E brochure and app, where the patient can get the need information about their condition, once the initial shock has stopped. The final product is unobtrusive, but it contains much needed information that can be consumed through augmented reality and can communicate with the doctor in real time for additional explanations. After the testing, we delivered the final product to the customer.
VR HEALTHE
THE RESULT
We have delivered a final product in a form of a digital e-brochure with an AR application that contained several custom 2D&3D animations and interactive 3D models. The VR HealthE project was showcased in Barcelona Health Conference as a part of a master thesis about breast cancer.
The brochure used elements of NFC&AR with a main purpose of making it easier for patients to accept and understand the situation they are in.
