Preventive medicine and mental health are two areas where VR headsets would have been peculiarly applicable, becoming widely adopted products across hospitals and care centers, globally, but none of the current market leaders in the virtual reality industry took the advantage.
The levitation of VR is its immersive experience beyond regular digital experience. This would have been an unparalleled utility for patients and their loved ones, across care centers, becoming a permeated medical technology.
The efforts of the companies in research would have been to seek what to offer in mental health and in preventive medicine, to ensure that VR is clearly the choice, with benefits, aside from other solutions—digital or not.
There are so many repeat conditions for which patients, even with prior warnings, often return to wards. VR would have enabled the possibility for immersive experiences for the patients and loved ones, before discharge [from the hospital] on how internal systems work, and the likely effects, if precautions are not taken seriously.
Some may argue that this exists in some form, by verbal warnings from doctors, or that even some addictive substances have warnings, yet people tend to continue using those substances. While verbal warnings may work, they are easily forgotten—by many, and there is a lack of an immersive [care environment] visual experience, to add to imagination against condition-causing sources, or what happens within the body, in simple forms that can become a basis for caution, especially in non-addictive cases.
While medical information is accessible online, the reality of the effects that personal decisions may have on health outcomes is not factored in by many people around the world, leaving them vulnerable.
The purpose is not to stoke panic, or some psychosomatic states or hypochondria, but within the scope of preventive health to ensure that medical conditions that can be avoided are, and to pivot resources in new directions against many difficult and unexpected conditions.
The preventive medicine model may also be applied to mental health care, across conditions. For example, if depression is assumed to be a problem of the mind, what happens in the mind during a depression? How can VR be used to see a conceptual display of this, to become a way to understand the state and a lift off point for therapy? How this be provided, at a small cost, to patients and loved ones?
What are negative thoughts and how should they be viewed? These could have become extensive applications for VR headsets, making them find their spots for mental health and preventive medicine globally, shaping the future of health and cutting costs from individuals and society. These purposes would give VR headsets a springboard, becoming a near-permanent application for them, into the future.
There is a recent story on Reuters, Apple sharply cuts back on Vision Pro production, The Information reports, stating that, “Apple, opens new tab has sharply scaled back its Vision Pro production since early summer and could stop making the existing version of the mixed reality headset by year-end, the Information reported on Wednesday, citing people involved in building its components. Sales for the device have been waning after initial enthusiasm following its launch in February, due to the headset’s hefty price tag and competition from cheaper options including Meta Platforms’, opens new tab Quest. While Apple’s Vision Pro starts at around $3,500 in the U.S., Meta’s Quest 3 headset has a price tag of around $500. According to the Information report, employees at three Vision Pro suppliers have so far built enough components to make between 500,000 and 600,000 headsets. One of the employees said their factory suspended production of Vision Pro components in May. Apple in recent weeks has also told the device’s assembler, Luxshare, that it might need to wind down its manufacturing in November, the report said, citing an employee at the manufacturer.”
There is a recent article on WLNS, U.S. Department of Justice begins investigating Michigan psychiatric hospitals, stating that, ‘The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into allegations that psychiatric hospitals in Michigan unnecessarily institutionalize people with mental illnesses in violation of federal law. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that people receive mental health services in the least restrictive setting appropriate to their situation—but Disability Rights Michigan (DRM), an advocacy nonprofit, says that the difficulty in acquiring mental health services outside of a hospital in the state forces people to remain institutionalized despite being ready for discharge. DRM says they have represented Michiganders who have remained in state psychiatric hospitals for lengthy periods—sometimes more than 1,000 days—despite having been declared clinically ready for release.’
