30 Aug Welsh VR start up working on ground breaking metaverse healthcare training platform
A company in South Wales which specialises in virtual reality training is working with local healthcare institutions on what it calls the “Mediverse”. The aim is to create a digital VR platform which enables healthcare training and collaboration from home.
The Mediverse project is masterminded by Goggleminds, which specialises in using immersive technology and gamification to help people learn more effective. The concept is a virtual reality space where learners can interact with each other and with a computer-generated environment.
Users will be able to access Mediverse from anywhere in the world, enabling coordination and collaboration between healthcare professionals both nationally and internationally.
Recreating realistic clinical environments
VR training environments like Mediverse have the potential to save time and money when training medical students and nurses to prepare for procedures. It can turn theory into practice, make training more accessible, and provide a more positive experience for learners. There’s also another significant benefit – improving patient safety.
The platform will include simulations which closely match real-life clinical environments and scenarios. This means that procedures can be practised and re-run multiple times, without the need to involve any actual patients.
One of the main areas of healthcare training this can help with is paediatrics, where training using real patients isn’t always possible. Goggleminds is working with the University of South Wales on VR training that focuses on treating children and young people.
The founder of Goggleminds, Azize Naji, explained to Mixed News how the Mediverse will create learning environments that are both realistic and safe:
“What we do is we use the power of virtual reality technology to re-create clinical environments and clinical scenarios to replicate what you’d get in real life.
“So a doctor or nurse, surgeon, or medical student, can test those skills and can retain that knowledge without having to put themselves or patients in danger.”
On the Goggleminds website, it states:
“Our medical simulations are evidence-based and help to support healthcare professionals and students to learn new skills and update their clinical competencies more effectively.”
The company is already working with leading UK healthcare institutions, including the NHS, Cardiff Metropolitan University and the University of South Wales. Other partners include VR headset makers Pico and Oculus, Consumer Insights Lab, the Welsh Government and the Arts & Humanities Research Council.
Healthcare training VR has a bright future
Goggleminds isn’t the only company working on metaverse technology for the healthcare sector.
It’s widely tipped to become a billion-dollar market, and numerous innovators are working on ways to bring VR to medicine. In fact, the use of virtual and augmented reality in medicine is expected to be worth around $10 billion by the end of 2027 alone.
If you’d love to be on the frontline of healthcare innovation, or your healthcare organisation is looking to hire, we can help. Get in touch with our specialist healthcare recruitment team here at Linq to start your search – call 0161 924 1433 or email info@linqhc.co.uk.