Sheba Medical Center (SMC) in Israel has announced that it is working with XRHealth, a healthcare technology company specializing in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality, to become the first fully VR-based hospital in the world.
This mission, according to a prepared statement, is a significant piece of the facility’s plan to be “a center of innovation that embodies a startup culture and that encourages the hospital’s complete transformation to digital health.”
“With XRHealth, Sheba Medical Center believes we will be able to provide improved training for our facility, along with better and more personalized care for our patients,” Amitai Ziv, director of SMC’s Rehabilitation Hospital, said in the statement.
“We've identified medical virtualization as one of the technologies that will transform healthcare,” Eyal Zimlichman, SMC’s chief medical officer and chief innovation officer, said in the same statement. “Within this realm, we aim to be a leader in developing new health services based on VR.”
As a part of this new collaboration, SMC now has full access to XRHealth’s VR platform, including its apps focused on cognitive assessment, training, motor function, pain management and more.
Eran Orr, CEO of XRHealth, called SMC’s work to embrace VR “monumental in both the medical and technology industries” in the prepared statement.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.