Across the U.S., cases of the novel coronavirus continue to rise in record fashion. In fact, 19 states recently set a record for seven-day averages in daily new cases of the virus. While this has caused great concern from a health perspective, questions continue to mount regarding just how many businesses will continue to optimally operate and function effectively while adhering to social distancing guidelines to keep employees and customers safe.
 
Further, California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently ordered many indoor businesses like restaurants, bars, movie theaters, and museums to shutter their doors once again.
 
Medical technology providers across the country have deployed business continuity response teams to build coordinated efforts that bring together technology, operations, communications, and HR to build a set of policies, processes, and procedures to keep everyone safe.
 
Technology Helps Medical Equipment Developers Remain Safe
Many developers of medical technology have taken workplace safety to significant new heights, all because COVID-19 has forced them to be creative and even fast-track the use of technologies that keep the lights on safely.
 
One technology in particular is getting a closer look from many designers—immersive mixed reality (MR)—which is best described as a fully immersive experience that brings virtual objects into the real world or one that blends the physical world with the digital one.
 
MR technologies, including augmented reality (AR), are poised to grow considerably over the next few years. In fact, the augmented reality market forecast is expected to reach $70-$75 billion in revenue by 2023.
 
MR in Medical Equipment Design
MR allows designers and developers the ability to conduct real-time 3D visualization and CAD for design of equipment and specifications, faster training cycles, and professionals to work at dramatically higher levels. In fact, some manufacturers report minimized errors using MR as a result of instructions overlay, remote assistance, and better planning and visualization. This has resulted in a more than 40 percent increase in productivity in some instances. MR technologies provide significant time savings to the manufacturing build process through an optimized decision process, which positively impacts the entire OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act).
 
These bottom-line improvements are made possible because of the greater efficiencies MR offers. The technology offers a three-dimensional, computer-generated environment that allows designers and engineers to interact with product builds by a person. That person then becomes a central part of this virtually created world in the form of a hologram, or is “immersed” within the production with the capability to manipulate objects or perform a series of actions in real time.
 
Overcoming MR Challenges
Many equipment manufacturers are finding new challenges in employing newer MR technologies. Enterprise-grade high-quality MR platforms require both performance and scale. Organizations that deploy these gain a rich repository of existing complex 3D CAD/CAM models created over time.
 
As these virtual environments become richer and larger, the repository continues to increase. This cycle is repeated for each of the different MR hardware platforms, making it difficult for any designer to move from experiments, virtual design blueprints, and pilots to full scale deployable projects, thus stunting the speed of innovation and effectiveness.
 
Medical technology manufacturers are overcoming this significant challenge by leveraging new solutions offered through cloud-based (or remote server based) MR platforms powered by distributed cloud architecture and 3D vision-based AI. These MR cloud platforms provide the desired performance and scalability to drive innovation in the industry at speed and scale.
 
Conclusion
Health enterprises and designers today are experiencing the next wave of technology innovation that will fundamentally alter the way they operate. This transformation is primarily driven by merging the digital and physical world to create a better, smarter, and more efficient way of operating. Immersive technologies such as virtual reality, AR, and MR are playing a pivotal role in this transformation. The organizations that take a leadership position as users of these tools will not only be in a position to successfully leverage them, but they will partner with the right technology provider to help scale appropriately without having to stunt technological growth.

Note: This article is the second in a series on AR/VR technologies implemented by medical device manufacturers. Click here to view the first article.

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Dijam Panigrahi is co-founder and COO of Grid Raster Inc., a provider of cloud-based AR/VR platforms that power compelling high-quality AR/VR experiences on mobile devices for enterprises. For more information, visit www.gridraster.com.