Ong Triton, Wilczewski Hattie, Paige Samantha R, Soni Hiral, Welch Brandon M, Bunnell Brian E
Doxy.me, LLC, Rochester, NY, United States.
Biomedical Informatics Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, United States.
JMIR Serious Games. 2021 Jul 26;9(3):e26520. doi: 10.2196/26520.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread challenges and revealed vulnerabilities across global health care systems. In response, many health care providers turned to telehealth solutions, which have been widely embraced and are likely to become standard for modern care. Immersive extended reality (XR) technologies have the potential to enhance telehealth with greater acceptability, engagement, and presence. However, numerous technical, logistic, and clinical barriers remain to the incorporation of XR technology into telehealth practice. COVID-19 may accelerate the union of XR and telehealth as researchers explore novel solutions to close social distances. In this viewpoint, we highlight research demonstrations of XR telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss future directions to make XR the next evolution of remote health care.
新冠疫情带来了广泛挑战，揭示了全球医疗系统存在的薄弱环节。作为应对措施，许多医疗服务提供者转向远程医疗解决方案，这些方案已被广泛采用，并有可能成为现代医疗的标准模式。沉浸式扩展现实（XR）技术有潜力提升远程医疗的可接受性、参与度和临场感。然而，将XR技术纳入远程医疗实践仍存在众多技术、后勤和临床方面的障碍。随着研究人员探索缩小社交距离的新解决方案，新冠疫情可能会加速XR与远程医疗的结合。在本文观点中，我们重点介绍新冠疫情期间XR远程医疗的研究示范，并讨论使XR成为远程医疗下一步发展方向的未来趋势。
