Katherine Ann Rubino, Partner & Director, Life Sciences Practice Group at CALDWELL

There has been a large amount of innovation in the VR and healthcare space, however it seems we are still far off from seeing broad global adoption of it. Over the past few years there has been a

Does VR have a substantial future in healthcare? While Virtual Reality is already operating in medical training, therapy and patient care, yet challenges remain. We asked three experts to weigh in on whether VR is poised for widespread adoption or still has hurdles to overcome.

large uptick in patent filings aimed at protecting innovations that couple VR technology to applications in the healthcare space.

For example, companies such as Immersive Touch use VR to allow surgeons to enhance and practice various surgical techniques. We’ ve also seen tools of it to be used for mental health purposes, for example to expose individuals to various stress situations to help them develop coping strategies. XRHealth is a VR tool that helps aid in the treatment of phobias, generalised anxiety, OCD, ADHD and the like.

However, even though VR is infiltrating society, we don’ t quite see a lot of uniform mainstream adoption. This seems to be in alignment when other disruptive technologies are first introduced to the marketplace. Take for example, cell phones.

The first cell phone call that ever took place by Martin Cooper happened on April 3, 1973. Patenting activity exploded in the 1980’ s and 1990’ s and then we saw market adoption by the 2000’ s. Time will tell if this same trend will align with this new tool that may aid in delivering healthcare more quickly and efficiently.

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