The issue of accessible modern health care is a pressing one, and as we progress further into the fourth great epoch of technological advancements, one promising solution to this problem is Augmented Reality. Its integration in pharmaceutics can play a pivoting role in boosting the efficiency of medical care and medicine marketing. In definition, AR is a technology that superimposes a computer generated image on a user’s view of the real world. Simply put, it allows people to virtually interact in a way that mimics how they would collaborate in person by projecting information onto a physical environment thus providing users with a composite reality. With the numerous ways to implement AR into the pharmaceutical industry to improve medical accuracy and accessibility, AR is in the position to solve some key issues that we face, in a cost-effective and scalable way.

Access to Safe Surgical Care

Currently, 70% of the world lacks access to safe surgical care and one solution is to use AR software which allows physicians to collaborate on how to treat patients. An example of this can be found in Trujillo, Peru, where AR was used to support the provision of cleft surgery to children by connecting a local surgeon to an experienced cleft surgeon in California. With the use of AR, the significant information brought before the eyes of the physicians helped them perform surgery with decreased complications.

First-Aid Training

In remote areas like villages that do not have access to quality health care, the need for people to be able to provide first aid care is important. People can learn first aid treatments through the use of augmented reality by learning how to perform CPR or give injections through the information projected onto their subjects through screens.

Physical Therapy

Immersive treatment like that in physical therapy sometimes involves developing or regaining motor skills by exercising muscles. Through AR, it can be made accessible into the lives of people involved in accidents or people affected with genetic or autoimmune diseases. The use of AR programs that display movements on a screen and prompt the patient to follow can result in providing therapy to people who do not have access to better healthcare. These simple activities can improve the lives of many people and allow them to resume daily life.

Medical Awareness for the Masses Since AR enables information to be projected onto subjects, people can be given insights into their medical procedures. This can be further developed into providing medical awareness through apps. AR can be used to educate the general public about the necessity of health and hygiene by demonstrating to people how disease travel or the causes and symptoms of prevalent contagious diseases. Helping people recognize symptoms or see the effects of diseases, can result in people actively making healthier choices.

Education and Research in Med Institutions AR prove to make for a better tool in education since students learn better through direct experience. Illustrating, demonstrating and gesturing leads to a fuller understanding. Integrating AR into current teaching methods in med school by presenting students with 3D visuals of different diseases and surgical procedures can be a viable alternative to using bodies donated to medical education and research institutions, which are already a limited resource. Innovation enabled by AR can break the borders created by social differences and economic imbalance and with further technological developments, the already mirrorable success in the medical can be made accessible in remote areas. The contemporary world that we have built is impressive but definitely not the endgame in terms of what can be achieved.