Virtual reality (VR) is about immersing the user in a computer-generated simulated environment. By contrast, augmented reality (AR) works by overlaying extra imagery or digital information onto the real world, usually using smart glasses or a head-mounted display.
So instead of replacing reality, AR enhances it by adding extra digital elements. This hybrid aspect (i.e., the interplay between physical and digital) makes AR especially useful for a variety of healthcare applications.
AR’s greatest strength is its ability to overlay precisely the right information in front of the right people at the right time; something that’s essential in an environment as complex, information-rich, and tightly regulated as healthcare. This makes AR ideal for clinical training and skills development in live healthcare settings.
AR also helps break down geographical barriers, meaning that clinicians and patients can rely on hands-on support from virtually anywhere. It can open the door to faster and more reliable diagnostics and new therapeutic options, while also ensuring that operational resources are used in the most efficient way.
Placing vital information right where it’s needed
As the global shortfall in skilled staff continues, two thirds of healthcare leaders say it’s leading to burnout, stress, and low morale. Training is particularly affected by this; if a unit is understaffed, it becomes much more difficult to give new starters the level of support they need.
What practical strategies can help address this? Part of it involves finding additional ways to give employees contextual, easily-digestible information that helps them develop their skills and build confidence. AR can play an important role here.
For instance, imagine it’s a busy shift and a new recruit is still learning to use a piece of diagnostic equipment. Through smart glasses, they can overlay their view of the machine with precise, step-by-step visual instructions.
Picture another trainee who needs guidance to complete a procedure, but their supervisor has been temporarily transferred to another clinic to cover a staffing shortfall. AR combined with live video streaming allows for two-way interaction. The supervisor can see exactly what the trainee sees, guide them through the procedure, and even draw and highlight on the screen to give precise direction.
From clinical protocols, health and safety assessments, data protection, through to shift handover checklists (to name just a few), healthcare operations inevitably involve a wide range of compliance obligations. Staying in control of this is a challenge at best; even more so when schedules are packed.
AR can make it easier to manage your compliance burden. For instance, you can integrate relevant compliance checklists with step-by-step instructions for specific activities, visually displayed to employees through smart glasses. It’s even possible for staff to virtually “tick off” items using voice commands, keeping their hands free for the task in hand.
Your team can log all checklist interactions automatically. This means you can see what has (and hasn’t) been done and intervene where necessary.
Across the healthcare sector, innovation continues in areas such as electronic health record (EHR) systems, predictive analytics, connected diagnostics, robotics, and more. These types of projects offer huge potential in terms of enhancing patient care, as well as in streamlining operations.
But how do frontline employees experience digital transformation? After all, it means replacing the old, familiar processes with unfamiliar equipment, software, and workflows. In the early implementation stage, it can seem daunting, especially for clinical staff with already demanding schedules.
AR can be a really useful tool to help employees familiarize themselves with these new technologies and processes. For example, your team is still learning to use a new portable blood analyzer. AR can overlay step-by-step instructions directly onto the machine itself, guiding them through setup, usage, and troubleshooting.
Using smart glasses or mobile devices, employees can bring up step-by-step visual instructions for specific activities. The result? A more impactful, hands-on learning experience for workers, and fewer routine queries for supervisory personnel.
See-what-I-see capabilities and integrated audio mean that clinicians can tap into real-time guidance from supervisors or colleagues, all accessible completely hands-free.
Using their choice of smart glasses or mobile devices, multiple professionals in different locations can view the same medical image at the same time, annotate, discuss, and share knowledge.
That means it opens new avenues for explaining complex information to patients. For instance, a physician can use AR to transform a standard 2D medical image into an interactive 3D model, or to overlay an image directly onto the patient’s body. They can even add annotations to explain to the patient precisely what will happen.
AR can offer a more effective way to handle them. With compliance checklists integrated into workflows, AR enables hands-free, real-time checklist completion through voice commands or gesture controls. You can also configure the system to alert users to potential omissions, reducing the risk of non-compliance due to user errors.
The severity of the impact depends on how quickly you can get back online, and AR can play a huge part in your fast response strategy. Instead of waiting for a technician to arrive, employees on the ground can use it to call on instant remote support. Two-way visual interaction allows the technician to see exactly what’s happening, and guide the worker through resolving it, use remote control to deliver a fix, or escalate the issue.
Trusted in healthcare environments across the globe for remote connectivity and workplace digitalization, TeamViewer enables you to provide your people with precisely the support they need — anytime, anywhere.
Through TeamViewer’s award-winning connected worker platform, TeamViewer Frontline, healthcare organizations can realize the potential of augmented reality. With advanced wearable and mobile computing technology as well as fully-customizable AR capabilities, you’re all set to provide workers with the information they need, streamline operations, and optimize patient care.
TeamViewer Frontline offers an impactful suite of features designed to enhance clinical training, real-time staff guidance, technical support, patient consultations, and more. Highlights include two-way interactive AR annotations (such as the ability to tag items with 3D markers, highlights, and text), camera sharing, VoIP communication, and session recording.
To match the way different health professionals work, TeamViewer’s AR solutions are designed to be used with a wide range of smart glasses, head-mounted displays, smart scanners, mobile devices, and wearables. TeamViewer allows you to configure, deploy, and adjust AR-guided workflows for even your most complex processes.
Supporting both touch and voice commands, and featuring a clear and straightforward user interface, TeamViewer Frontline allows healthcare workers to interact with AR in a way that’s natural, efficient, and hands-free. Meanwhile, supervisors and managers can design and make on-the-fly edits to AR-driven workflows when needed, no advanced tech skills required.
TeamViewer’s commitment to interoperability allows you to use custom integrations with whatever systems you have in use already.
Whatever plans you have to extend your use of AR across clinical operations, technical support, and patient interactions, TeamViewer is ready to grow with you. Once set up, TeamViewer can be easily scaled across different sites and to support a variety of processes.
There is no room for lag when it comes to patient safety. Trusted across the world’s most sensitive industry sectors, TeamViewer’s reputation is built on its ability to consistently deliver secure, ultra-reliable connections, fast transfer speeds, and strong image quality; precisely the elements you need to ensure a high-value augmented reality experience for end users.
While self-service capabilities are an integral part of our solutions, we’ll be there with you at every stage of your AR journey. We’ll help you evaluate use cases and implement, integrate, and configure your custom AR solution.
Spotlight
With their ability to alter and enhance how we experience the physical world, augmented reality and virtual reality tools already have an important impact on healthcare operations and patient care. This includes the ability to display critical information directly within a healthcare worker’s field of view via smart glasses. In addition to on-the-job training, use cases include real-time checklist completion using voice commands or hand gestures, and delivery of remote technical or clinical support.
In contrast to augmented reality (AR), where digital information is blended with the real world, virtual reality (VR) immerses users in an alternative simulated environment. For healthcare professionals, one of the most promising use cases for VR relates to training and assessment. For example, a trainee can use VR to carry out a simulated clinical procedure, expanding their skillset in a risk-free way.
Benefits of AR in healthcare include the ability to deliver engaging training, ensuring healthcare professionals have hands-free access to the right information at the right time, easier management of compliance obligations, and greater possibilities for remote visual collaboration.
