How to Build Healthcare VR App or Software?

7 months ago

Undeniably, VR (Virtual Reality) is transforming healthcare!

Whether it's care delivery or medical training, it is proven as an effective tool in all directions.

That’s the reason for the rapidly increasing demand for VR apps in healthcare.

Meaning, it's a perfect business opportunity for healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, enterprises, and organizations.

And if you’re one of them, this blog is for you.

We have covered the best process to build a healthcare VR app or software along with the cost to develop it in Canada, the USA, the UK, and beyond.

What is a Healthcare VR App?

It’s nothing but just an app that uses virtual reality technology within it.

It gives an immersive experience to the users in a virtual environment, with visual elements and sounds in a three-dimensional space.

For example, 

  • It allows a patient to get care support without any need to be physically present in a clinic or hospital.
  • On the other hand, it helps healthcare professionals to visualize the inner and outer body parts of the patients for treatment or training purposes.

For a better understanding, here is an image of a healthcare professional performing medical training using a healthcare VR app.

Medical simulation training using healthcare VR app

You can develop medical VR apps in any form you want such as:

  • A mobile app for iPhone, Android, or other OS
  • Web-based software
  • Desktop-based application

How Does a Medical VR App Work?

A variety of devices are used to provide a virtual reality experience.

VR devices for healthcare

These devices stimulate VR technology using powerful sensors within it.

They track the user's eye & head movements and create a 3D visualization for it.

Then, the app or software collects, analyzes, and shows the collected data from the devices to the users for clinical or training purposes.

10 Real-World Applications of a Healthcare VR App

Despite the fact that VR is a relatively new concept, there are plenty of areas in which it’s helping both patients and healthcare professionals to overcome several challenges.

And the following is the complete list of it:

  • Robotic Assisted Surgery
  • Medical Education and Training 
  • Wound Care Management 
  • Pain Management 
  • Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Management
  • Mental Health Therapy
  • Symptom Tracking
  • Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's Disease Management
  • Speech and Occupational Therapy

What is the Best Example of a Healthcare VR App?

If you see, there are only a few medical VR apps available in the market.

And most of them are providing mental and physical therapy solutions.

Floreo, RecoveryVR, XRHealth, OSSO VR, and SyncThink are a few examples of it.

However, Floreo is one of the most popular ones.

It was launched in 2016 and recently raised $10M in Series A funding.

What makes it special is that Floreo is a first-of-its-kind VR platform that offers a complete behavioral therapy solution for every size of age group.

Why Should You Build a Healthcare VR App?

In healthcare, patient care experience and peace of mind to the healthcare professionals is something that matters the most.

And VR is offering the same! 

That’s the reason, its adoption is rising at a rapid pace in every part of the world.

For example,

As per the Verified Market Research, “Virtual Reality In Healthcare Market size was valued at USD 2.89 Billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 57.42 Billion by 2030.”

VR healthcare market size

Besides, it gives a countless number of benefits such as:

  • Improves care outcomes
  • Involves patients in their own care
  • Real-time remote assistance during medical simulation training
  • Helps in providing patient education with less frustration
  • Speeds up the rehabilitation for mental and physical therapy

Meaning, with healthcare VR app development, the possibilities are endless to help patients and healthcare professionals under the same roof.

How to Make Money from the Medical VR App or Software?

There are multiple ways to generate revenue from the healthcare VR app.

And here are some of the top business models for it.

  • Freemium Model

This is one of the best ways to attract new users.

Under this model, users can easily access some common features but need to pay fees to use advanced features.

  • Subscription-Based Model

This business model allows you to retain more users with ease.

Under this model, users need to pay for the services on a monthly and yearly basis.

  • In-app Advertising

This business model is proven as an effective way to generate continuous revenue.

However, it’s important to focus on the relevancy and amount of advertising.

Because promoting too much irrelevant advertising can result in a poor customer retention rate.

So, if you are a healthcare entrepreneur then, this is the best time to utilize the true power of VR in healthcare.

You can offer your medical VR app to small, medium, and large-scale healthcare organizations for their clinical, education, and medical training purposes.

How to Develop a Healthcare VR App or Software?

If you are planning to create a medical VR app, there are 8 crucial steps you must follow.

Step 1: Define the app concept and what you want to offer.

Step 2: Choose a platform like iOS, Android or, some VR platforms like Oculus, XboxVR, SteamVR, etc.

Step 3: Select the right VR engine (it stores the data that users will see). The most popular VR engines are Unreal Engine, Google VR, Amazon Sumerian, etc.

Step 4: Pick the hardware for your healthcare VR app development. You can choose either or both handheld or wearable head-mounted devices.

Step 5: Hire healthcare-specific VR experts for designing, prototyping and development.

Step 6: Decide the monetization strategy.

Step 7: Launch the app in the market.

Step 8: Improve the performance of the app as per the feedback from your app users.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Healthcare VR App?

There is no fixed amount for it.

Because it totally depends on your requirements of features, usability, and content you want for your medical VR app.

For a better understanding, here are some factors that affect the healthcare VR app development cost:

  • UI/UX requirements
  • Technology stack
  • Testing complexity
  • Workflow requirements and its complexity
  • Feature needs
  • 2D/3D content requirements
  • Data privacy and security requirements

So, if you want to build a medical VR app that is user-focused and secure with an immersive visual experience, you’re in the right place!

We Have Ultimate Expertise in Healthcare VR App Development!

Based in Ontario, we are a healthcare-specific IT company.

Meaning, we only perform health tech projects for startups, individuals, enterprises, and organizations.

Because we have a solid vision to bring peace of mind into the intense healthcare environment!

To do so, we have a passionate team of 50+ IT healthcare-focused IT professionals who combined have 300+ years of experience.

It includes UI/UX designers, web and app developers, AR/VR developers, business analysts, compliance specialists, and QA engineers.

So, let’s conduct a call and talk about bringing the next wave in healthcare with VR technology!