Description:

Healthcare is a $5 trillion industry and accounts for almost 20% of the United States GDP. At a time when care is costly and often inaccessible, the promise of new technologies such as AI and XR appeals to many. XR, in particular, shows potential across many specialized healthcare use cases. Key areas of interest include but are not limited to:

• empathy training for providers and caregivers working with difficult and complex patient cases
• skill building for providers in specialized surgeries where practicing on dummies or cadavers may not be optimal
• simulating complex human body interactions for training or drug discovery purposes
• improving patients' education and understanding about their health and care interventions
• providing digital therapeutics through guided experiences for mental wellbeing or chronic care management
• expanding access through telepresence to clinicians in community and rural health locations

While use cases abound—especially in areas where patients are hard to access or training is cost-prohibitive—several barriers impede widespread adoption. These include ease-of-use concerns, specialty training requirements, high costs, and resistance from systems focused on short-term cost savings. How will you address these potential challenges as you evaluate and prototype in healthcare XR?

How Might We...

• HMW create a training simulator that teaches and critiques surgery residents on common or rare procedures?
• HMW create an immersive environment to address patients' physical and mental needs during post-stroke rehabilitation?
• HMW provide real-time information about the clinical impact of food and medicine when a patient or clinician examines an object?
• HMW strengthen connections between hospital staff and patients, even when patients aren't at the clinic? How can we achieve this without burdening staff with extra work?
• HMW create interactions that allow providers to engage with patients in the physical world through robotics and AR?
• HMW create empathy exercises for clinical trial site staff working with underserved, marginalized patient populations who often distrust the healthcare system?
• HMW use AR and MR to build stronger awareness of how behaviors and habits affect our personal health?

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