ZocDoc's 'Escape the Wait' campaign recognizes what might as well be a platitude about medical appointments: for the most part, people would rather be somewhere else. To placate that desire, Escape the Wait is a virtually reality experience that uses the technology to transport patients to somewhere completely different while they wait for their appointment.
Generally, there are two ways that people feel while in a doctor's waiting room. The first is simply bored. By implementing a VR experience, those bored patients will be instantly entertained, making the time fly by. The second category -- perhaps a more important one -- is those who feel anxious during their wait. To help people in this latter category, the locales in ZocDoc's VR experiences are all calming (e.g. a yoga retreat, a horse pasture, or a seaside sunset.)
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- VR Medical Experiences
- Medical institutions and tech companies can collaborate to create more VR-based solutions that can help alleviate patients' stress and anxiety while waiting for their appointments, providing a more enjoyable experience and improving overall patient satisfaction.
- Patient Waiting Room Enhancements
- Businesses from different industries can develop various waiting room enhancement strategies such as offering VR experiences or other innovative activities that can serve as a valuable addition to their core service offering.
- Virtual Entertainment Accessibility
- With the development of more VR-based solutions for patient waiting rooms, there is an opportunity for virtual entertainment providers to make their experiences more accessible and more in-demand by offering them to medical institutions and partnering with healthcare companies.
Where This Applies
- Healthcare Industry
- Introducing VR-based solutions for patient waiting rooms and providing a more enjoyable experience for patients can become a competitive advantage for hospitals, clinics, and other medical institutions.
- Tech Industry
- The incorporation of VR in healthcare services is a potential new vertical for tech companies to explore, with various opportunities for partnerships and innovative solutions.
- Entertainment Industry
- VR entertainment providers can capitalize on the growing demand for virtual entertainment experiences and seek partnerships with healthcare and medical institutions to offer their services to a larger audience.
