Researchers must think outside the box to make the most of this technologies in order to benefit patients above aanything else. Kinect, Virtual Reality, motion sensors, Augmented Reality, and Mixed reality are some of the alternative technologies that are being offered to medical professionals today, so, for the first time in ARinMed, let’s take a ride and learn how all of them could change rehabilitation as we know it.
Surely, you have heard about the use of motion tracking in athlete’s clothing and equipment, how about using it for the purpose of analyzing the performance of a patient in rehabilitation therapy? How about having an objective, precise system that allow us to ensure that the patient is using both arms symmetrically, both legs with the same strength, learning if there’s any vice in their physical training? Of course, this could take a lot of the effort from the physician, but it will also permit one physician to monitor many more patients than before, all of these movements could be captured on Kinect in order to assess biomechanics objectively. This technology paired up with motion sensors could give physiatrists millimetric precision, all for a relative low cost to any patient that needed it.
This technology is becoming so cheap that every patient could have their own motion sensor/Kinect bundle in their home, allowing them to do their physical therapy tasks at home. Mixed Reality could help their therapists to supervise and assess the exercises just as if they were there on real time, or perhaps even later in the day, giving patients their corrections and their impressions on their progressions, taking in account their movements, following the patient progression like never before, in the comfort of their home.
This is a small example on how multiple technologies could be used to improve the quality of a medical attention to every patient. With this, you are reducing transportation costs and risks as well as giving the patient a more comfortable method to reach their therapeutic objective. At ARinMed, we believe that this could be applied to every medical specialty out there, with emphasis on surgery and surgery sub-specialties. The impact of alternate technologies cannot be underestimated, and this is something we are going to be talking about in the near future.
What do you think are the best specialties to apply multiple alternate technologies? We want to hear your ideas – let us know in the comments section!
