Keeping It Real in the World of Virtual Reality | Thingee’s Tech-Talk

Do you still consider virtual reality something for serious gamers or the uber-wealthy? Well Tech-Talk is here this week to turn “VR” into “R” for you and your business.  Just watch: Real life VR applications, real people helped and real-time benefits for your business.

As Rich Verde explains, his responsibility to ensure proper application and administration of an important pharmaceutical treatment was supported when he and Thingee worked together to develop a way to use virtual reality for medical personnel training.

Traditional training relied on anatomical practice and instruction, and thankfully that was successful in increasing the efficacy of the product use.  However, when professionals were exposed to the virtual reality instruction… it was a game changer in reinforcing proper administration of this particular device. In Rich’s own words, “It’s one thing to use your hands, it’s another thing to see it” and that’s what virtual reality can do.  Anatomical training is great and necessary but if you can “virtually” become the device your understanding is magnified. Seeing and experiencing the application is whole new reality in healthcare pharma.  

While change is often considered difficult, the learning curve for virtual reality applications is easy to maneuver and we will be with you to help guide and train your team as needed. 

We are honored to have helped in this vital area of training.  How can we partner with you to make a difference in your patient’s or customer’s lives?  Contact us and let’s get to work!

Jeff Bromley
jeff@thingee.com
973-644-9012 ext. 11

Tech-Talk brings you the latest tech advances to put you ahead of the curve.  Look for future Tech-Talk posts, subscribe to our email list, and give Thingee a call to discuss how this new tech can help achieve your goals. One way to ensure you won’t miss any of our Talk-Talk video casts is to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Video Transcript

0:00 Hey guys welcome back to Tech-Talk I’m

0:02 Jeff Bromley here for Thingee today we

0:04 have a special edition of Tech-Talk

0:06 where we talk with Rich Verde one of our

0:07 clients about his experiences with

0:09 virtual reality hope you enjoy Rich

0:12 thanks again for joining us they want to

0:13 tell us a little bit about yourself and

0:16 what brings you here today

0:17 sure I’m rich Verde I work for a

0:19 mid-sized pharmaceutical company

0:21 headquartered right here in Parsippany

0:24 as a senior product manager we recently

0:27 worked with Thingee

0:28 on a virtual reality experience that we

0:31 launched at a big conference that we

0:33 just had it was a great success

0:35very good all right so tell us a little

0:37bit about the problem that you were

0:39 looking to solve and how virtual reality

0:42 helped you solve that problem so our

0:44 product really needs to be administered

0:46 in a certain way and one of the things

0:49 we discovered especially early on

0:51 promoting this product was that

0:53 administration habits or bad habits were

0:59 widespread amongst the HCPs that were

1:01 using the product so we quickly answered

1:05 with a mass education campaign we had

1:10 our reps going into hospitals and

1:13 training the nursing staff and the

1:16 doctors using an anatomical model and

1:19 placebo inserts it’s a vaginal product

1:22 so that these nurses can actually have

1:26 something that they were never provided

1:28 with before hands-on training once these

1:33 nurses were trained correctly they

1:35 noticed that the efficacy of the product

1:38 all of a sudden changed it was a more

1:41 positive experience so we decided to try

1:46 something a little bit different than

1:48 just an anatomical model and turn to

1:51 virtual reality the virtual reality

1:54 experience that I kind of had in mind

1:56 and that I worked with Thingee on was a

2:01 very virtual using a joystick

2:05 administration process so all of a

2:08 sudden picture yourself as the insert

2:13during you know the vaginal canal and

2:16you’re watching yourself maneuver to the

2:20 cervix to be a proper administration

2:23spot which is transversely under the

2:26 posterior fornix that’s the proper

2:29 administration so it’s one thing to use

2:32 your hands and do it but it’s another

2:33 thing to actually see it firsthand by

2:36 seeing it it really reinforced the

2:40 proper administration it’s one thing to

2:41 tell it it’s one thing to practice it

2:43 but seeing it firsthand really

2:46 reinforced it when you talk about it

2:48 stereotypical sales representative a lot

2:51 of times especially with the mature

2:53 product or a product that is very

2:54 technical in nature sometimes the people

2:57 that are out in the field as sales

2:59 representatives tend to rely more on

3:02 printed materials things that can be

3:04 left behind in terms of ease of use in

3:09 terms of their abilities to to utilize

3:13 these types of tools do you have any

3:15 concerns about a typical sales

3:18 representative needing deal with

3:19 something that you know from a

3:21 technology perspective is pretty much on

3:23 the cutting edge well anytime you

3:25 introduce technology there’s always

3:26 going to be those bugs that you have to

3:30 have to push through so initially yes

3:32 but I mean in this day and age as long

3:35 as you know we train them and as long as

3:37 it’s not a true mechanical failure the

3:40 representatives can troubleshoot

3:43 no problem and I think it’s just getting

3:46 used to the technology I remember back

3:49 in 2010 we introduced iPads as selling

3:53 forums or selling mediums to

3:56 representatives there was a little bit

3:58 of hesitation a little bit of kinks to

4:02 be worked out but fast forward several

4:04 years or two even now it’s everyone’s

4:06 using these iPads as their selling tools

4:09 so I could see you know virtual reality

4:12 in the future being used in pharma much

4:15 more often it’s even replaced the iPads

4:19 rich thank you again for participating

4:22 in Thingee’s Tech-Talk series it’s been a

4:24 real pleasure having you on today

4:25  absolutely

4:26 and the feeling is mutual and thank you

4:28 to the Thingee for helping us out You’re

4:30 very welcome.