Healthcare providers around the world are accelerating their digital journey and embracing secure solutions that empower health team collaboration and boost clinician productivity. Embracing mixed realitya set of technologies that superimposes digital data and images in the physical worldbrings new opportunities for healthcare providers to work together more effectively, optimize operations, and accelerate learning all while improving patient care.

With HoloLens 2 and mixed reality, health professionals can connect with remote experts, and call up patient data and go beyond x-rays to consult Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images in 3D at the point of care. Microsoft’s comprehensive ecosystem of mixed reality solutions, including Microsoft HoloLens 2, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides, empower teams to cooperate more effectively and reduce time-to-care.

The benefits of adopting mixed reality in healthcare are significant. According to the commissioned Total Economic Impact of Mixed Reality Using Microsoft HoloLens 2 (“HoloLens 2 TEI study”), Forrester found that healthcare organizations experienced the following benefits:

• Improved efficiency to complete ward rounds by 30 percent at an average savings of $41 per hour.
• Reduced training time by 30 percent, at an average savings of $63 per labor hour.
• Reduced average annual PPE costs by 75 percent, saving $954 per employee.  

Forrester also estimates an ROI of 177 percent and a net present value of $7.6 million over three years with a payback of 13 months with HoloLens 2 and mixed reality.

Adapt to the speed of change and improve clinical operations

Dynamics 365 mixed reality on HoloLens 2 is enabling healthcare providers to train medical staff more effectively and efficiently with holographic step-by-step guidance. Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 enables medical institutions to provide continuous learning and widespread knowledge sharing while removing the need for subject matter experts to be physically present. Simply use your PC and the HoloLens app to author instructions and easily place 2D and 3D content in the real-world environment, showing users how and where to complete tasks.

Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 empowers doctors, nurses, and technicians to train and to practice using hands-on, simulated learningensuring the entire organization keeps pace with the technological advances in science and technology. According to the HoloLens 2 TEI study, Healthcare providers reduced 80 hours of training time by 30 percent, at an average savings of $63 per labor hour.

When the pandemic hit, like many hospitals, Sheba Medical Center, a comprehensive hospital in the Middle East, sought solutions that would allow it to scale its workforce and expedite task shifting. With Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2, Sheba Medical Center deployed a self-serve training solution that supported staff to learn to operate physical ventilators quickly and easily. With holographic instructions overlaid in their physical environment, hospital staff were able to walk through a guided training simulation proficiently and successfully without requiring a supervisor. As a result, Sheba Medical Center was able to expedite task shifting across medical staff and meet staffing demands, enabling over 60 members of its staff to learn how to operate new devices in just 20 minutes.

“One of the key advantages of the technology is that it works on several layers of the brain you hear it talk, see the presentation in front of you, and also physically touch the ventilator. The more senses involved simultaneously, the better the brain can recall. I ‘tested’ myself later to check what my brain remembered, and it was incredible. It also gave me a sense of empowerment that I can learn and embrace new technologies.”Shiraz Shushan, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse, Sheba Medical Center. Learn more about how Sheba Medical Center optimized staff training.

Empower care teams to collaborate effectively and securely from anywhere

Multidisciplinary care teams encompassing specialized clinicians, clinical staff, and healthcare administrators often span multiple hospitals or locations, adding time, cost, and complexity to patient care. Enable care teams to collaborate remotely and conduct virtual patient consultations with real-time spatial information to accelerate diagnoses and reduce time-to-treatment with HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 mixed reality solutions.

Using Dynamics 365 mixed reality solutions on HoloLens 2, medical staff can consult colleagues’ heads-up, hands-free through an interactive collaborative experience from anywhere in the world. Additionally, healthcare providers can improve access and care delivery to aging and underserved populations with remote assisted care consultations. These remote consultations also lead to major cost savingsthe HoloLens 2 TEI study shows that healthcare providers reduced ward round time by 30 percent saving $41 per hour.

Each year, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust provides acute and specialist healthcare in northwest London for over a million and a half people. Like many healthcare providers around the world, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust rapidly began to redeploy and retrain its staff while at the same time coping with an increasing number of affected patients. With Dynamics 365 Remote Assist on HoloLens 2, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust was able to successfully conduct virtual ward rounds and treat very ill patients while limiting staff exposure to the deadly virus. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust reduced ward rounds from four doctors to one doctor by holding video calls with colleagues and experts from anywhere in the world heads-up, hands free. Doctors were also able to simultaneously access patient data such as medical notes, X-rays, and MRIs to effectively treat patients.

Preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals while reducing costs

According to World Health Organization (WHO), to achieve the goal of universal health coverage by 2030, the world needs nine million more nurses and midwives.² Dynamics 365 mixed reality and HoloLens 2 are advancing the learning of nurses and removing location barriers of in-person training while reducing costs.

Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 enables healthcare providers and institutions to enhance the upskilling of nurses and reduce PPE costs with continuous, hands-on learning experiences remotely. Instructors and supervisors can track and monitor student and faculty progress with Power BI dashboards that pull in real-time performance data to maximize participant development and identify areas for operational improvements. The HoloLens TEI study reports that healthcare providers reduced annual PPE costs by 75 percent, saving $954 per employee.

The pandemic disrupted the operations of institutions around the world casting a clear gap in the effectiveness of hybrid learning tools. The School of Nursing at the University of Michigan (the University) turned to Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 to support hybrid learning because of its ability to provide hands-on skills to nursing students remotely. The University piloted a program allowing students to conduct simulated, repeatable augmented medical procedures one step at a time. Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 enabled students to follow the guided training heads-up, hands-free and simultaneously perform the procedures on mannequins. The University is continuing to develop and scale the program for more advanced nursing procedures.

“Once we were introduced to HoloLens 2 we learned about Dynamics 365 Guides, and it was pretty exciting because we realized that we could use the guides to create training tools to teach the nursing students how to do these necessary, rudimentary, required skills, and procedures that they have to do in order to move to the next level and go out and practice.”Deborah Lee, clinical assistant professor, School of Nursing at the University of Michigan. Learn more about how University is transforming nursing education.

Next steps

Our customer evidence stories, in addition to the material ROI showcased above, demonstrate that Microsoft offers not only innovative results, but long-term and sustainable solutions for healthcare organizations and beyond.

Learn more about how to get started today:

• Learn more about Microsoft HoloLens 2 and mixed reality capabilities.
• To learn more about business benefits and cost savings of mixed reality solutions, read the Total Economic Impact Of Mixed Reality Using Microsoft HoloLens 2 report.
• Request a Dynamics 365 Mixed Reality demo on Microsoft HoloLens 2. Book an appointment with our Microsoft Stores team today. Select ‘Other’ under Choose topic and reference HoloLens 2 demo in “What can we help with”.

Sources:

1- The Total Economic Impact Of Mixed Reality Using Microsoft HoloLens 2 Report, Forrester, 2022

2- Nursing and Midwifery, World Health Organization

The post How Dynamics 365 Mixed Reality on HoloLens 2 is accelerating ROI for the healthcare industry appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

There’s no doubt about it: technology has revolutionized how we do business. But the same technologies that allow consumer goods brands to reach customers worldwide have created an environment in which change happens fast and continually, competition is fiercer than ever before, and even incremental adjustments in strategy can significantly impact a company’s profitability and growth. At the same time, the past two years’ events have laid bare how companies of all sizes are vulnerable to global, social, political, and economic disruptions. With so much change it can be difficult to understand what trends are worth the investment, which is why we’ve taken a data-driven approach to cut through the noise. Four key trends are highlighted below and a more in-depth look can be read in the Consumer Goods Trends in 2022 report by Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce.

1. Social commerce makes every online touchpoint a potential storefront

Social media has revolutionized how people connect and is now transforming the way consumers discover and engage with brands. One clear example is social commerce, which is an integrated and seamless strategy for allowing customers to discover, browse, share, and purchase without ever leaving a social media platform. Now brands are opening significant new revenue streams by delivering seamless purchasing experiences to consumers on the social media platform of their choice. The results are staggering, with the value of social commerce sales worldwide in 2021 hitting an estimated $732 billion and projected to grow to $2.9 trillion by 2026.¹

Unsurprisingly, social commerce, or live commerce according Gartner Hype Cycle  for Retail Technologies, 2021, “can increase brand awareness and generate a large amount of traffic in a short time.”² One country that is leading the live commerce trend is China.

Dynamics 365 Commerce can help organizations consistently deliver great customer experiences on any social channel or front-end application. This is because Dynamics 365 Commerce can utilize both headless and other modern commerce architectures to seamlessly connect enterprise systems, such as payment processing, content management, and omnichannel inventory.

2. Digital shelf analytics improve online merchandising

In 2021, US merchants recorded a record $870.8 billion in online sales, an increase of 14.2 percent compared to the year prior.³ As online sales continue to increase in volume and importance, brands will need to collect, measure, and monitor product and sales data from a growing variety of sources. One way brands can stay on top of this information is by using digital shelf analytics (DSA) to improve online merchandising.

DSA applications give retailers the ability to monitor data and metrics from all their digital sales channels, including retail digital commerce sites and online marketplaces. DSA solutions may often provide product data from social sites and collect competitive pricing data. These applications use API connections and automated website scraping to ingest data on metrics such as ratings and reviews, product availability and placement, search rankings, and product information content quality, alerting users to updated content.

Another technology related to DSA is the Smart Shelf. According to Gartner, “Smart shelf refers to the connected shelf in a physical retail store, which can include computer vision, weight or other sensors, electronic shelf labels (ESL) or LCD displays.” Gartner classifies the technology as “emerging” with a “high” benefit rating,² which we believe makes it a technology to watch in the near future.

Dynamics 365 Commerce offers retailers robust DSA capabilities, including a unified view of content, assets, promotions, inventory, and pricing across physical and digital channels.

3. Immersive commerce helps retailers combat the rising cost of returns

One technology trend helping companies improve how they interact with consumers is immersive commerce (IC). IC reinvents customer experiences by integrating physical and virtual worlds via augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality. With IC, brands can give customers a new way of visualizing a product in their space, such as seeing the way a Microsoft Surface Laptop looks on a desk in a home office or how different shades of makeup look before ordering online. Experts believe that AR-enabled shopping will soon become a must-have for furniture retailers. Home Depot, Wayfair, Target, Overstock, and Houzz have already adopted the technology.⁴ Significantly though, IC goes beyond improving and augmenting the customer experience. It also presents opportunities to solve costly inefficiencies, the most obvious and expensive being returns.

The growth in e-commerce and virtual shopping that accompanied the pandemic led to a corresponding increase in returns. In 2020, total return losses, including the value of lost sales, reached $428 billion, with an estimated $101 billion purely from returns.⁵ The loss from returns is expected to increase in the next several years, eventually reaching $1 trillion annually. According to Gartner, “Size and ‘best fit’ recommendations using AR can drastically reduce return rates and improve conversion.”² We agree and believe that in the face of growing losses from returns, brands will likely increase their investments in AR because of its ability to help consumers avoid returns altogether. For example, by allowing customers to see how furniture will look in their house or how clothes will look in a virtual fitting room, they are more likely to purchase the product they need and will enjoy.

Add AR, VR, and mixed reality capabilities to your digital storefronts using apps available in Microsoft AppSource, like Web AR with D365 Commerce from Hexaware Technologies.

4. Supply chain resilience is more crucial than ever

The events of 2020 unleashed a series of disruptions to global supply chains, such as border closures, stay-at-home orders, severely depressed demand in industries like travel and in-person services, and demand booms in others, such as healthcare equipment and operating supplies. The cost of these disruptions is significant: in a study conducted by Deloitte, 32 percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) said that shortages and delays were responsible for depressed sales, and 44 percent said that their costs have increased by 5 percent or more this year as a result.⁶

For retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, a primary beneficiary of supply chain resilience is the consumer, who will switch retailers if an item is out of stock and expects to be able to order from any channel with fast and convenient delivery to anywhere. This means that retailers need technology solutions that enable omnichannel retail and fulfillment while also ensuring inventory availability.

Interested in learning more about live commerce or digital shelf analytics? Need to cut through market hype to prioritize your retail technology investments? Download Gartner Hype Cycle for Retail Technologies, 2021.

What’s next?

These are just a few trends that you can find inside our report on Consumer Goods Trends in 2022. In the full report, you’ll find relevant and impactful insights drawn from extensive research curated by industry professionals, subject matter experts, and thought leaders. Download your copy of the Consumer Goods Trends in 2022 report. And, be sure to register for the corresponding webinar on Top Retail Trends which you can attend live on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM Pacific Time or watch afterward on-demand.

Sources:

1- Statista, 2021, Value of social commerce sales worldwide from 2020 to 2026

2- Gartner, 2021. Hype Cycle for Retail Technologies, 2021

3- U.S. Department of Commerce, 2022. Quarterly Retail E-commerce Sales

4- Postindustria, 2021. Top 10 AR Furniture Shopping Apps that Change the Future of Business

5- National Retail Federation, 2021. $428 billion merchandise returned in 2020

6- Deloitte, 2021. CFO Signals: 3Q 2021

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

GARTNER and HYPE CYCLE are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

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