The Apollo Hospitals Group, on Thursday, announced its collaboration with 8chili Inc, a company creating virtual reality (VR) solutions for healthcare industry, to enable patient engagement in the metaverse and to use the technology for training.
Aravind Upadhyaya, founder of 8chili Inc. said that this was the company’s first such collaboration with a hospital on such a scale.
Prathap C. Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals, said the collaboration was part of the hospital’s continuous endeavours to explore ways to enrich the healthcare service. Highlighting that the hospital had adopted several cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, he said the VR technology would help the hospital take precision medicine to its patients. “8chili is a leader in the VR space and we are excited to work with them to integrate VR solutions into our care continuum,” he said.
Sangita Reddy, joint managing director, Apollo Hospitals, spoke on how the collaboration could help in training apart from providing enhanced care to patients. “Findings support the equivalence and superiority of VR training and the economic savings compared to traditional methods. Our need to train healthcare professionals to the standard operating procedure of care effectively and efficiently just keeps growing. We strongly believe 8chili’s platform helps us deliver VR immersive training at scale and efficiencies,” she added.
Mr. Upadhyaya said the company’s focus, from the beginning, was to deliver a platform that made it easier for organisations to tap into the full potential of metaverse. “We are very excited about working with Apollo Hospitals as this allows us to deliver the immersive experience to the millions of patients they serve,” he said.
