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Augmented reality and Pharma

By on June 16, 2009

This morning, I was fascinated by a tweet from Bertalan Meskó (soon to be Dr Mesko) about Layar, the world's first mobile augmented reality browser.  Take a look at this short video:

Now imagine how it could potentially be used in the Pharma world… sales reps, account managers, medical science liaison officers and other field (or office) based people could use it to find information about the surrounding area for every doctor's office or hospital they visit. 

Perhaps they need to find other physicians or outpatient clinics, profiles and important customer information about their target list, maybe they need a cafe with wifi to download reports or key data such as sales or clinical trial information while in between appointments (or even access that through the browser), or they have someone with them and need somewhere for lunch etc etc.  Imagine you could use an augmented reality browser on your smart phone to find all this information and more?

The opportunities with this sort of integrated app/browser are endless, especially if customised for each company.  You're almost limited only by your own imagination with these sort of useful web2.0 tools coming out to help improve the speed of available information and work efficiency.

The downside?  It's only available for Android phones on July 1st, but hopefully they will add Blackberry and iPhone functionality soon.

The world is changing fast.  Who can possibly keep up with it?

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7 Responses to “Augmented reality and Pharma”

  1. Leonard Kish

    Well said. Thanks to you and Berci for sharing this video.
    Is it me or does this seem like the most innovative time period we’ve seen in quite a while? While investigating Rich User Experience and Rich Internet Apps and their potential for pharma/med/life science, I’m blown away.
    I wonder if the uptick we’re seeing in innovation isn’t fed by the social tools built on the Web 2.0 technologies that are now being innovated upon. Seems like exponential curve of innovation of Web 2.0 being fed by the social Web.

  2. MaverickNY

    Nice points, Leonard.
    The web2.0 tools, fed by sharing on Twitter, is a great way to stimulate, inspire and share ideas.
    That’s viral word of mouth at it’s best – it brings immediacy and innovation to so many people in real time.
    If it wasn’t for Twitter, I may never have known you or Berci, let alone seen great new tools and ideas shared like this either. The pace of change and sharing is simply amazing. Maybe the open social web is the next big thing after all.
    What great Rich apps have you come across lately that you’d like to share with us from your research?

  3. Leonard Kish

    Here’s a decent introductory video on Rich Apps, but a bit long. Skip ahead to around 37:50 for the health care example http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX09/C11F. (Shared on Twitter by @thomashellstrom). We’re going to see apps become much more like virtual worlds because of a couple things: 1. the technology is making it easier, and 2) designers are developing a keener sense of the human brain and what constitutes an “experience” with technology.
    And here’s some pretty cool iPhone apps for clinical settings. What other opportunities do you see with pharma with these sorts of rich apps? R&D? Medical Affairs? Online communities? Sales?

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