We are proud to announce that HoloCare won the #EUvsVirus Hackathon efficient remote working challenge. This hackathon was launched by the European Commission to boost innovation in the fight against the pandemic. From 24-26 April, it brought together more than 20,000 participants who submitted 2,100 projects. HoloCare stood out from the competition by reinventing the doctor-patient relationship with its holographic visualization technology that provides mixed reality solutions for the healthcare sector.
During a pandemic, hospitals host a high concentration of sick patients. Keeping these facilities open and running is decisive when it comes to properly managing the disease. Continuing treatment at these facilities using personal protective equipment is not always enough to contain the spread of infection, for patients or essential care workers. What’s more, social distancing is an effective way to reduce transmission rates for unknown and difficult-to-treat diseases.
Based on these social distancing guidelines, HoloCare decided to adapt the way its holographic technology is used to offer healthcare workers the option of working at a safe distance from patients and other personnel while upholding the quality of treatment in hospitals.
The teams built a solution using Unity 3D that would allow clinicians to visualize diagnostic data hands-free and in 3D.
HoloCare can help health workers combat the Covid-19 pandemic by:
- Limiting traffic in and out of isolated patient rooms or protected areas and sending in clinicians as a hologram instead
- Protecting critically important health personnel and enabling them to engage in virtual multi-disciplinary team meetings.
- Avoiding cross-contamination between hospitals and between departments
- Facilitating digital training and remote assistance for decision support and guidance
- Offering better remote inter-hospital cooperation
- Limiting equipment contamination risks
- Providing smarter and more efficient use of key resources
- Avoiding unnecessary contact between the general practitioner and the patient
The story behind HoloCare goes back to the autumn of 2016 when Oslo University Hospital and Sopra Steria embarked on a groundbreaking research project to develop applications based on Microsoft’s HoloLens. HoloCare is equally owned by Sopra Steria and Inven2, Norway’s largest stakeholder in research marketing.
HoloCare is now a global platform based on cloud technology providing hospitals with accessibility and scalability, and integrating innovative technologies such as 3D, HoloLens 2 as well as holograms to prepare for major surgeries.
HoloCare is on-track to move forward with its solution to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The next step is to make HoloCare available to doctors in order to establish how this solution can help to reduce the volume of traffic and the risk of contamination.