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If I walked up to you and asked for the first word that comes to mind when I say Virtual or Augment reality, most of you would say something related to games as one of the first applications of AR/VR was gaming.
But, AR/VR has been growing ever since its initial introduction in the early 1990s, it’s only been growing in every single industry, especially in healthcare. To this day, one of the biggest misconceptions is that Virtual and Augmented Reality can *only* be used for gaming.
However, AR/VR has a lot of potential in the healthcare industry. Every year it has been gaining more and more traction and in fact, the AR/VR healthcare market has a compound annual growth rate of 27.2% from 2021 to 2028 🤯This just goes to show how massive the potential is for this emerging technology.
Despite the potential of AR/VR, it already is massive in healthcare, it has so many applications already, this ranges from helping doctors to the patients 🧠
- Medical training: Students and doctors can perform operations with less risk
- Surgery: Robotic arms aid in performing complex surgeries (controlled by a human via VR)
- Therapy: Overcome physical pain levels using VR
- PTSD treatment: Virtual environments used to overcome difficult situations
- Mental health issues such as anxiety, depression: Virtual environments are used to put patients into relaxing environments
- Personalized treatment: Creating personalized environments for specific patients
That’s a pretty extensive list, but let’s hold onto that thought for a minute… The healthcare industry is quite broad, but one of the biggest problems within the medical world is Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is a big issue worldwide already, with over 50 million people diagnosed with the disease. The total number of people with Alzheimer’s is expected to double every 20 years.
Despite this concern, there have been some changes being made to help cope with Alzheimer’s. One of the newer implications of AR/VR in the healthcare industry is to help patients with Alzheimer's. Alzheimer’s is one of the most feared diseases worldwide; it is a type of dementia and it has various effects on the human body. It’s a progressive disease as the symptoms of dementia get worse over time. It results in a loss of cognitive function, which includes thinking, remembering and reasoning. On top of this, it has effects on the patient’s everyday life and as of right now, there isn’t any cure that exists to help deal with Alzheimer's. To make it worse, the current annual global cost of dementia is over a trillion dollars.
Alzheimer's and memory loss is often tossed under the same bracket, but, Alzheimer's is more than just memory loss. The brain is one of the most complex parts of the body and it consists of many parts. One of the key components of the brain are neurons, who are responsible for receiving, processing and transmitting signals. These signals are sent to the brain and to different muscles in the body as well. All of this only remains true for a healthy brain, but these neurons are affected heavily by a brain with AD. Alzheimer’s disease affects the constant communication between neurons and this makes it difficult for these neurons to do their job. This often results in cell death.
The portions of the brain that are affected by Alzheimer’s are involved with memory. The damage done to the brain affects key processes to neurons, this includes communication, metabolism and repair/damage prevention. After the neurons are destroyed, the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex are next. They are affected by Alzheimer's as they’re part of the portion of the brain that is responsible for memory.
These portions of the brain are severely impacted as the hippocampus shrinks in size due to a rapid loss of tissue. It eventually affects parts of the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is responsible for many important brain functions, these include sensation, perception, memory, association and thought. Following the damage to the cerebral cortex, other parts of the brain are also affected, the damage is very widespread and it results in the brain tissues decreasing in size.
Along with all this damage to the brain, AD causes more biological issues as well. There are several molecular and cellular changes that occur within the brain of an Alzheimer's patient.
Amyloid Plaques
A lot of you looking at this word may be confused, but just hear me out. One of the first changes that occur within the brain is when these proteins known as beta-amyloid proteins start to accumulate. These proteins play an extremely important role in neural growth and repair, but they also can lead to nerve cell loss. Within a healthy brain, the beta amyloids are successfully eliminated. However, the process of eliminating these fragments isn’t done successfully in an Alzheimer's brain. The beta-amyloid 42 (it is known to be toxic) accumulates and clumps together and this forms plaques. They interfere and get between neurons and this damages neuron and causes some of the symptoms of dementia.
Neurofibrillary Tangles
The next thing within the brain that changes are the neurons. Within neurons, there are these proteins called Tau. In a healthy brain, the inside portion of neurons is supported by microtubules. They’re essential in guiding nutrients/molecules from the cell body to different parts of the neuron, specifically the axon and dendrites. The tau protein helps stabilize the microtubules by binding to them. However, within a brain that is affected by AD, the chemical and biological changes to the body cause the tau protein to clump and accumulate. They detach from the microtubules and stick to each other. This in turn forms these threads and tangles inside neurons. The tangles are formed when they are misfolded in a certain manner, in AD, the tau forms a C-like shape. These tangles drastically affect the neuron’s transport system, they simply block it off completely and this makes the synaptic communication between neurons extremely difficult.
Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation is common in patients with AD. It’s common for debris to accumulate within the brain, but glial cells help remove the debris. There are many glial cells, this includes astrocytes, microglia, oligodendrocytes, etc. But the primary glial cell that is known to kill and eliminate toxins and debris is the microglia. However, within an AD brain, the microglia is unable to get rid of the debris and waste. This causes major problems like the failure to get rid of debris. This results in chemicals being released which eventually causes chronic inflammation and this further damages the neurons.
The Key Genetic Marker: APOE4 Gene
The APOE4 gene is responsible for important functions within the human body, primarily giving instructions to the apolipoprotein E. This protein has an extremely important function as well, it’s responsible for combining with fats. This helps the body create these molecules called lipoproteins. They pack cholesterol and are responsible for carrying them via the bloodstream. However, there are different versions/alleles of this gene. The most common alleles are e2, e3 and e4. The e4 allele is related to the risk of AD as it increases the risk for developing AD, specifically the late-onset. This essentially means that this form of the condition occurs in those above the age of 65. This allele is known to create protein clumps (amyloid plaques) and this can be detrimental to the brain.
So…now what?
Alzheimer’s is evidently a huge problem, but the problems don’t end there. Alzheimer’s is extremely difficult to detect and diagnose, regardless of age. Diagnosing AD is difficult, doctors often have to run multiple tests regarding memory, behaviour and other thinking skills. On top of this, they also evaluate the symptoms. This is where the problem exists, this evaluation and testing process takes months before a diagnosis of AD can be given.
What about AR and VR?
This is where the potential for AR/VR comes into play, a study that was conducted a couple of years ago hinted at the huge potential AR/VR could potentially play in changing how Alzheimer's is treated and detected. A maze was used to predict spatial disorientation. This was deciphered from the way patients were moving through the maze. The patients that were able to get through the maze with ease had a lower chance of having the genetic markers. The main genetic marker is the APOE4 gene, this genetic marker is known to trigger the disease at a young age. The identification of these genetic markers helps reduce the time frame for diagnosing the disease. Instead of the many months that it takes to detect and diagnose.
However, the implications of AR/VR don’t end here. Through the use of virtual reality, virtual environments can be created to aid these patients. Creating these virtual environments will be very comforting and they already are. But these virtual environments can also be used to remind these patients of their memories and childhood. These virtual environments stimulate the brain and can help a patient remember a time/memory they forgot about. Along with this, these virtual environments can be used as a therapeutic tool. Dementia often results in other psychological effects such as anxiety, depression, etc. These virtual environments make the experience/therapy more personalized. The patients can be put in relaxing and calm environments where nothing is triggering their anxiety. This isn’t necessarily a cure, but it does help ease the patient into recovery. A study was conducted in 2019 where patients were put in these virtual environments and they monitored for 15-minute sessions. This not only allowed the patients to improve their social skills/interactions, but the caretakers were able to learn more about the patient as well. This is a surface-level implication, as more research is done, it’s very possible that these virtual environments can improve the quality of life for Alzheimer's patients.
What’s next?
Overall, Alzheimer's continues to remain a huge medical issue and the amount of Alzheimer’s patients continues to grow. It’s a work in progress and further research is needed to establish all these claims, but the potential remains endless. There are a bunch of new and emerging technologies that can be used to help cope with Alzheimer’s and to also possibly detect it more efficiently. But this is just the beginning of what AR and VR can achieve in the healthcare industry. Not only will this new technology help AD patients, but it will also create new career opportunities. The implications of AR and VR are very surface level as of right now, but it is really exciting seeing the impact technology has on modern healthcare.
If you’re interested in this, feel free to connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dev-shah-5906bb198
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