Introduction to Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) gained widespread attention in the summertime of 2016 with the addictive game, Pokémon Go. However, AR is not any longer only for entertainment. This technology is anticipated to drive significant changes in various industries, including the life sciences industry, by combining the virtual and physical worlds. AR transmits a live view of a real-world environment that’s augmented by computer-generated, 3D images. A digital object might be scaled to suit neatly in a physical environment using an AR application and camera on a mobile device.
Early Use Cases for AR
In 2018, AR is moving beyond early experimentation into more viable business applications, especially within the life sciences industry. Innovative firms are developing compelling ways to make use of AR to reinforce customer engagement, improve education of complex topics, and create powerful brand differentiation. AR is becoming more accessible due to recent software corresponding to Apple’s ARKit, which makes it faster and easier to develop applications. There are over 2,000 AR applications available today, and more are being developed, in keeping with a report by Forrester Research.
AR within the Life Sciences Industry
Early adopters within the life sciences are beginning to use AR to clarify complex concepts and coverings. It optimizes digital channels by providing attention-grabbing recent content that enables healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients to have interaction directly with 3D images. For example, one company created a 3D heart model to show how a drugs moves through the organ as a part of a brand new treatment. Other AR applications have mapped a person’s body for surgery and shown the precise location of veins in a patient’s arm, helping HCPs treat patients higher and improve outcomes.
Real-World Applications of AR
Regeneron is leveraging AR to create deeper empathy and understanding of patients affected by vision loss. HCPs can experience the blurriness, wavy lines, or black patches attributable to various kinds of retinal disease to higher appreciate the challenges patients face from this condition. As AR continues to achieve traction within the life sciences industry, it would be built into core enterprise software, bringing an exciting digital content format to life by making it widely accessible and actionable.
Benefits of AR within the Life Sciences Industry
AR can have a big impact on the life sciences industry in several ways:
1. Enhance Personalized Customer Engagement
AR will enhance customer engagement by creating highly engaging experiences for HCPs and patients. This is crucial today, especially as HCPs’ expectations for digital engagement increase. Using AR to spur emotional reactions corresponding to wonder or surprise can create a greater reference to customers and help ensure HCPs are fully engaged. AR enables life sciences firms to innovate how they tell and deliver their product’s value, in addition to show the outcomes.
2. Improve Understanding of Complex Treatments
Unprecedented scientific discovery has led to an increased deal with developing specialized treatments which are highly complex. With every recent discovery, effectively communicating complicated breakthrough therapies and even cures becomes tougher. AR technology offers a multi-dimensional method to communicate complex concepts for greater comprehension and retention. In fact, researchers have concluded that AR is more practical in demonstrating spatial and temporal concepts, allowing people to have interaction in the training process with multiple senses and producing higher results.
3. Create Powerful Brand Differentiation
In an increasingly competitive landscape, AR can provide a crucial point of differentiation for all times sciences firms. Marketers will give you the option to make use of AR to face out in a world saturated with content. With AR, firms can add value to customers, helping them visualize the product, providing empathic experiences, or creating context for the product. It offers a brand new avenue for marketers to have interaction in storytelling for his or her brand to speak product advantages.
Conclusion
Life sciences firms are testing the waters in recent and exciting ways today, and industry analysts expect to see a dramatic climb in AR adoption over the following several years. The integration of AR applications into conventional workflow will result in much more exciting possibilities for industrial operations. Perhaps the most important obstacle to AR is just resistance to alter and inertia. Forward-thinking firms will paved the way and supply the industry with key learnings while creating broader acceptance of AR as a "killer app" with infinite possibilities. Looking to the long run, AR shall be increasingly essential in life sciences industrial strategy, creating extraordinary experiences for HCPs and patients.
Arno Sosna is General Manager, Veeva Systems
