Currently, the medical applications of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are found mainly in the following six areas: educational training, clinical assistance, visual impairment, psychological disorders, rehabilitation training, and personalized fitness. For instance, AR/VR can be used for medical education or surgical simulation training; AR can be used to assist surgery or guide robots to perform surgery; and VR can be used for amblyopia treatment, rehabilitation training, and management of certain mental illnesses.

Owing to the high capital input, the VR/AR market is expected to show fast growth in the industrial chain in the next three to four years. Despite multiple application spaces of the VR/AR equipment in the future, we need to ensure their compliance with certain safety codes in actual use, in order to truly attain management of physical health. Compared to VR, which is used primarily for training and simulation, AR is more extensively used in medical operations. According to the comprehensive data query of CBInsights, CrunchBase, and AngelList, there are now about 30 start-ups focusing on AR medical applications worldwide. Nine of them have been financed, with a total of $552 million, revealing a 30% investment attraction rate. The application of AR in medical care is still in the exploration stage.

This Special Issue calls for high quality and up-to-date submissions related to AR/VR-based medical application systems and will serve as a forum for researchers to discuss their works and recent advancements in the field. In particular, the Special Issue will showcase the most recent progress and developments in this field. Both theoretical studies and state-of-the-art practical applications are welcome for submission. Original research and review articles are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Relevant standards for VR/AR application in medical devices
• Objective and subjective evaluations of VR/AR medical application system
• User guide and health guidance for VR/AR medical application system
• Multi-sensor-based VR/AR medical application
• CT image capturing with VR/AR medical application system
• Surgical simulation based on VR/AR medical application system
• Medical robots based on VR/AR medical application system
• VR condition analysis aid
• VR medical live broadcast, remote treatment
• VR psychological intervention therapy
• Medical application system on mobile devices
• VR/AR-based virtual medical community
• VR treatment of childhood autism
• Virtual Rehabilitation
• Pain alleviation with VR technology
• VR games for medical purposes
• VR treatment of psychological fear
• Data privacy and software development for VR/AR medical application system
• Solution to dizziness reduction with VR