-
Americas
-
Asia & Oceania
-
A-I
J-Z
EMEA Thought Leadership
Developing IQVIA’s positions on key trends in the pharma and life sciences industries, with a focus on EMEA.
Learn more -
Middle East & Africa
EMEA Thought Leadership
Developing IQVIA’s positions on key trends in the pharma and life sciences industries, with a focus on EMEA.
Learn more
Regions
-
Americas
-
Asia & Oceania
-
Europe
-
Middle East & Africa
-
Americas
-
Asia & Oceania
-
Europe
Europe
- Adriatic
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Czech Republic
- Deutschland
- España
- France
- Greece
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italia
EMEA Thought Leadership
Developing IQVIA’s positions on key trends in the pharma and life sciences industries, with a focus on EMEA.
Learn more -
Middle East & Africa
EMEA Thought Leadership
Developing IQVIA’s positions on key trends in the pharma and life sciences industries, with a focus on EMEA.
Learn more
Segments
-
Pharmaceutical
-
Consumer Health
-
MedTech
-
Public Health & Government
-
Payer & Provider
Pharmaceutical (Global page)
Bringing data science and human science together to advance human health and support the pharmaceutical industry from clinical trials to commercialization.
Learn More
Consumer Health
Connecting with powerful, evidence-based market insights to drive agile thinking, uncover growth potential, and gain competitive advantage in this fast-moving consumer health market.
LEARN MORE
MedTech
Empowering to orchestrate operations across the entire product lifecycle, from concept-to-market, providing quality control, regulatory, safety and compliance solutions along the way.
Learn more
Public Health & Government
Working across the health system to address key barriers to deliver high-quality, cost-effective care while improving health outcomes using our data-driven and population-centric solutions.
LEARN MORE
Payer & Provider
Delivering a wide range of consulting and technology solutions to support healthcare stakeholders to drive operational efficiency, enhance quality of patient care, and improve systemic outcomes.
learn moreHealthcare Provider Solutions
Solutions
-
Research & Development
-
Real World Evidence
-
Information Insights
-
Market Research
-
Strategy Consulting
-
Contract Sales & Medical Solutions
-
Patient Solutions
-
AI, Digital & Technology Solutions
Research & Development (Global page)
Clinical development enabled by Connected Intelligence™ which combines data and analytics with deep therapeutic and operational expertise to improve efficiency, enhance precision, and bring therapies to patients faster.
Learn More
Real World Evidence
Harness the power of real-world data and insights to demonstrate value-driven evidence and outcomes to meet stakeholder needs across the healthcare ecosystem and to propel healthcare forward.
LEARN MORE
Information Insights
Pharmaceutical market data and information assets that provide actionable data points to help organizations make intelligent connections and drive healthcare forward.
LEARN MORE
Market Research
Primary Intelligence integrates purpose-built and syndicated research solutions with our wide range of data assets, research methodologies, advanced analytics, and deep domain expertise, generating quality insights for our clients.
LEARN MORE
Strategy Consulting
Trusted advisor and partner to global healthcare organisations, solving the most significant business challenges through extensive healthcare expertise.
LEARN MORERelated Solutions
Contract Sales & Medical Solutions (Global page)
Optimize commercial success by leveraging our comprehensive outsourced expertise to accelerate time-to-market.
LEARN MORE
Patient Solutions (Global page)
A single window solution provider to support pharmaco’s design, deploy technology and services that help increase access to medicine and improve treatment adherence.
LEARN MORE
AI, Digital & Technology Solutions
Connected Intelligence™, digital insights, data analytics and advanced technology to power smarter decision-making to enable better patient outcomes and improved business results.
LEARN MOREOur Latest Whitepapers
Get the latest insights on our life sciences, healthcare, and medical technology solutions in Asia Pacific.
Learn MoreBlogs, Case Studies & Podcasts
Explore our library of insights, thought leadership, and the latest topics & trends in healthcare.
Discover Insights
IQVIA APAC Insight
"A curation of IQVIA's best thinking on topics and trends driving change, disruption, and progress in the Asia Pacific healthcare market.
Read The Latest Issue
Featured Event
"Unlocking the Future of Consumer Health: A Special Focus on Senior Consumers
Learn MoreCareer Opportunities
Improving human health requires innovative thinkers who are willing to explore new ideas and build on successes. Unleash your potential with us.
Search Jobs
Blog
Virtual engagement: bringing immersive tools to the table
Jul 07, 2020
In 2012, as a medical device marketeer I set off to execute the first ever live digital surgery Continuing Medical Education (CME) in India. The event hosted in-person attendees and over 1000 virtual surgeons from national and international surgeon panels, with 6 surgeries from 3 cities being telecast. Looking back at the success of the event, and how we overcame perceived challenges, I wonder why almost 10 years on, the model remains largely unchanged.
The COVID-19 pandemic, the restrictions placed on hospital access, demands for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), travel restrictions and other safety measures has led to a sudden disruption for surgical training and patient education. From an industry perspective, the inability to demonstrate products or host guided trials has impacted the launch and access of innovative products, where specialty training is non-negotiable. MedTech companies quickly leveraged basic digital engagement channels, such as webinars, to engage non-frontline surgeons/physicians. An already highly coveted hospital space has moved into a heavily competitive screen environment, up against everything from scientific journals, to Netflix and Social Media. Even as countries emerge from lockdown, the frequency and scale of training in wet-labs, visiting surgeon tours, and product showcases will be lower.
It begs the question of content differentiation and providing the best tools to meet the need. Of course, one such tool is Virtual Reality (VR) immersion, along with others such as augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR). VR application has been growing and yet remains elusive, the most common Google search themes are “What’s the latest in VR?” or “Is VR dying?”. In other industries, VR has come a long way, particularly in video games where VR has seen the highest penetration. However, in healthcare it has not been adopted into main stream practice. Where the need and application are not fully understood by developers, users are commonly left with either a hardware bottleneck, that limits widespread availability, or a cartoon/graphical interface that limits learning, no matter how realistic.
VR has been given a bad rep. However, the right understanding of surgical user needs and best deployment practice coupled with the latest filmography and no need for special hardware – there is a powerful immersion tool in-hand. A tool useful when you need to:
- Highlight spatial awareness of a scenario and showcase the nuances of surgical set up, such as patient positioning
- Demonstrate surgeon dexterity and details in manoeuvres beyond the 1inch incision view
- To deliver training to a wider audience, across multiple and hard to reach locations
While the precedence for digital engagement has been established, understanding the right application match, whether teleconferences, webinars or VR, to meet end-user need is crucial. VR is solidifying its place in the digital engagement continuum, as it can bridge physical distance and bring a situation to life.
Authors:
Aparna Ramani, Senior Consultant, IQVIA MedTech, Asia Pacific
Ruthie Burr, Consultant, Strategic Marketing and Business Development, Asia Pacific
For more information, please feel free to contact us