The Virtue of Virtual Reality For Medical Devices

There are days when Andrew Sweeney transforms from a 38-year-old industrial designer into a superhero. In his Columbus, Ohio, office, with one familiar swipe of his smartphone, he becomes an 80-year-old diabetic patient with compromised motor skills and even poorer eyesight that make it really difficult to grip an insulin injector.

Sweeney, who works at Battelle, an independent, nonprofit research and development organization, does not leap tall buildings or fly at lightning speed, but he does help medical experts refine products and procedures that better people’s lives. The application of virtual reality, unlike a traditional video game, could mean the difference between designing an insulin injector that works well and one that does not.