Holo-rific healthcare

HGTV broadcasts a plethora of property and real estate improvement shows that appeal to many fans who appreciate the finished product as well as the process of achieving it from the heap with which the hosts had to work.

Pffft. Not me.

My peculiarly unique fascination with these shows rests not with the demolition or reconstruction activities but with those nifty software programs the hosts use to display what the properties will look like once they’ve been gutted and subsequently gussied up!

We’re not talking about one-dimensional or 2-D animated gifs here, but 3-D renderings of your space, courtesy of 360-degree photography, videography and some swanky software that rivals 3-printing capabilities on the chart of epic coolness.

Back in the Calcite Age as the 20th century drew to its denouement, you had to design and draw jewelry, eyeglasses, clothing, etc. on paper or napkins, buildings and rooms on blueprint paper. Today, you use pixelated pixie dust whipped up with a magical stylus via software illustrator program that can de-age actors and even create near life-like avatars of long-dead thespians for films.

The founders of Neoforma originally harbored a version of these thoughts as far back as 1998 during their trade media tour. Their website ideally would showcase, say, an interactive surgical suite that enabled a person to hover the mouse over a product on display and click, triggering the product specs and supplier contact details to pop up on screen. Quite novel at the time; quaint 20 years later.

Within the last few years, such electronic artistry has emerged in healthcare to assist in the science of designing clinical space. Just ask some of the leading suppliers of integrated surgical systems and hybrid ORs to demonstrate on the exhibit floor of the upcoming nursing shows and some of the leading product suppliers offering supply chain consulting services.

In short, augmented and virtual reality is poking its way into the supply chain realm.

High-tech toys can be useful tools for even low-tech product sourcing and seemingly rudimentary decisions. Just ask QC Storage President Ron Bennett. His firm uses software illustrations to help customers choose the right storage equipment for their facility.

“We review their areas and inventory the products that will be stored on the equipment,” Bennett told Healthcare Purchasing News. “Then we use our software to create a 2-D layout that the customer can share with everyone involved in the project. Once everyone has given his or her input and they agree on a design we create a final 3-D image for them to see and walk through on the screen. They can walk through their designed area and inspect everything before we cut a PO or charge a penny.

“We enable the facility to gather feedback from everyone impacted by the design, including the infection preventionist, architect, department head and newest employee,” Bennett continued. “We invite them to a GoToMeeting event on the computer no matter where they are so that all can go on a walk-through.”

Bennett boils it down to one word: Communication.

“Simplify, clarify and unify on the front end so you don’t regret anything later,” he said. “Why would someone not want the ability to see, inspect and walk through an area equipped with new products before you buy those new products? If we don’t make it easy for the hospital (customer), we’re not doing our job,” he added.

Now imagine if we could make all, if not most, of our behavioral, consumption and purchasing decisions with such interactive visual elements. To wit, how might I look in 20 years if I consistently engaged in what society widely acknowledges as unhealthy habits?

Of course, technically, it wouldn’t matter because by then the progressive development of 3-D software rendering capabilities would enable me to project myself to the world as a chiseled and striking specimen of wholesome masculine goodness, bringing us full-circle in an era of dirty data.