Imagine watching what happens to a pill from the moment you swallow it. You don’t see static images or flat 2D videos. Instead, you put on a headset and pick up hand controllers. These present computer-generated visuals that make you feel like you're in a digital world with a 360-degree view. You can explore and interact while the real world is blocked out, creating an immersive experience. This is Virtual Reality (VR).
In this edition, we will explore how VR is changing science communication and why it often beats traditional formats. Science is full of complex theories and breakthroughs, but explaining them to different audiences is challenging. VR changes this. We'll also see how pharma companies are already using this technology.
Why VR Works Better Than 2D
When you put on a VR headset, your attention locks in. Interactive elements and spatial audio create a strong sense of presence. No flat medium can match this.
In 2D, you watch a drug’s process in the body. In VR, you experience it yourself. VR turns viewers into active participants. Emotional cues are stronger, and empathy comes easier.
Motion, sound, and interactivity keep engagement high for longer. Research backs this up. Kuhne and colleagues found VR created a higher sense of presence, deeper emotional responses, and measurable physiological engagement.
Step Into the VR creation process
Creating an immersive VR experience is a team effort bringing together people with scientific knowledge and VR technical expertise.
Ideation & Strategy: Start by defining the goal of the project and shaping the content to connect with the audience.
Pre-Production: Select the right software and hardware for compatibility, while planning the budget carefully.
Asset Creation: Once the concept is clear, create the characters, environments, 3D models, textures, and animations that will bring the story to life.
Production & Scripting: Focus on implementing the user experience and blending in audio elements to make the feel truly immersive.
Testing & Refining:Testing the experience across devices, ensuring everything aligns with the project goals, and using user feedback to fix out any issues.
Launch: Finally, roll out the project, support it with a marketing campaign, and track metrics to understand how the experience is received.
Behind the Scenes of a 3-Minute Immersive Experience
When your product is just a tiny white pill, strict regulations limit what you can say. So you need creativity to tell its story. Here is how Merck's VR product showcase accomplished this.
The story guides viewers through the product’s unique manufacturing journey. It turns a “small white pill” into a story of innovation and precision dosing.
The crew spent two days in a German factory. They captured immersive shots by choreographing staff and fitting cameras inside machines to bring the action to life.
Where cameras couldn’t go, they created detailed animations. This shows chemical processes and particle-level activity. The experience was rendered in stereoscopic 8K 180-degree video. This gave viewers a real sense of depth and presence.
The experience was translated into four languages with native voiceovers and adapted visuals for different regions. The VR demo travels on headsets to international events and conferences. It turns Merck’s booth into an understandable translation of science.
Conveying Science Concepts through VR
Science communication through VR is booming. Let’s explore some use cases for various communication purposes.
Case Study 1: The Migraine Experience Campaign by GSK
The goal of the Migraine Experience Campaign was to help non-sufferers understand that migraines are more than just headaches, and to help them understand what it feels like in everyday situations whether at work, grabbing a coffee, or going about daily life.
The team interviewed migraine patients to identify key symptoms, then translated these into VR elements such as light sensitivity, visual auras, and image distortion.
Family members and close friends of migraine sufferers volunteered for this campaign. They wore Oculus Rift headsets and attempted normal navigation.
Responses included "I want to take this off," "I can't see anything," and "I feel sick," as volunteers quickly removed headsets.
This immediate physical response demonstrated VR's unique ability to translate this medical condition into shared understanding, and helped bridge the empathy gap between sufferers and their support networks.
Case Study 2: Pfizer’s Virtual Lung Oncology Diagnostics Lab
Training healthcare professionals (HCPs) on best practices involves gathering experts from around the world, scheduling, and flying them to the facility. Most importantly, this approach is expensive, time-consuming, and offers only limited access.
As a result, to address these challenges, Pfizer contributed to metaverse technology through the Virtual Lung Oncology Diagnostics Lab, a practical VR tool.
Instead of reading manuals or attending one-off workshops, HCPs can step into a lifelike, high-resolution virtual lab. They can explore equipment, follow guided actions, engage in quiz-based learning anytime, anywhere, and perform tests.
What makes this initiative stand out is accessibility. Unlike many VR experiences, it requires no special headsets. This inclusive design expands reach across geographies and age groups, turning lung cancer diagnostics training into a repeatable, immersive learning journey.
Conclusion
Looking ahead, immersive experiences with personalization have the potential to transform science communication. VR enables audiences to retain information better and develop empathy, whether they are patients, caregivers, or healthcare professionals. As shown in the case studies, VR can translate complex medical conditions into shared understanding, make training more accessible and interactive, and adapt content for diverse audiences. Importantly, VR can overcome language barriers by offering multilingual voiceovers and region-specific visuals, making scientific knowledge more inclusive and globally understandable. By leveraging VR, science communication can become more engaging, memorable, and impactful, making it the perfect time to gamify science.
Resources
For a compelling glimpse into the future of healthcare, explore this immersive VR experience by Novartis: The Future of Healthcare 2050 in VR with Novartis
An immersive view into molecular science, watch how VR takes scientists inside new molecules: How Virtual Reality Takes Scientists Inside New Molecules
Discover how Lucid Reality Labs is transforming industries with immersive technologies. Their portfolio showcases cutting-edge VR, AR, and AI solutions across healthcare, education, and more : https://lucidrealitylabs.com/portfolio
Find out how Touch of Life Technologies is revolutionizing anatomy education by enabling learners to explore the human body in photorealistic 3D using Varjo's human-eye resolution virtual and mixed reality technology : https://varjo.com/case-studies/transforming-anatomy-education-with-virtual-and-mixed-reality-case-touch-of-life-technologies/
Explore how the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) uses immersive VR to educate youth about alcohol's effects on the brain. This interactive experience takes users on a virtual rollercoaster ride through key brain regions, highlighting how alcohol impacts behavior : https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-and-your-brain-virtual-reality-experience-0
What VR is Good For (And What it is Not) : Watch on YouTube
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