Cameron (Parkin): “We found VR to be a really useful tool to help the clinical people who frankly don’t read drawings on a day to day basis. It gave them, we think, a great opportunity to be able to understand in a much better manner what the space was going to look like when it was finally constructed. It worked quite well for us to look at different opportunities or problems that we had within the design and to fix them up based on the feedback we got.”

Lisa and Lucy, staff at St. Mary’s General Hospital, described how valuable the use of VR was for them throughout the design process. For healthcare projects especially, a wide array of doctors and technicians have specific space requirements to do their job correctly. VR helped them address the needs of all their colleagues and gave them confidence in Parkin’s process.

Lucy (St. Mary’s): “It really gave us a great perception about space and possibly how things could move. Where we were concerned about some impingements. Where we could place pieces of equipment. It was really valued. It was a piece that really gave us some clarity.” Lisa (St. Mary’s): “When they came and were able to put [VR] on, the [specialists] were worried about their area and what they can do, how they’ll be able to set up their equipment, what space they’ll have, how they can get to the patient, how can they bring in accessory equipment around the patient. They were able to actually go in to where they would be standing and see how that would fit in and that gave them a lot of confidence in what we were doing.”

Evaluating the Space from Many Perspectives

One of the greatest benefits of VR is it’s ability to allow you to empathize with others. It’s the closest thing in existence to literally stepping into someone else’s shoes. Parkin takes advantage of this to ensure the procedure room worked for all the medical staff and even the patient!