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Innovation Healthcare

AR training for healthcare procedures, built for clarity under constraint.

NDA developed an augmented-reality training application that helped Johnson & Johnson support induction and procedure learning when traditional in-person formats became harder to rely on.

Overview

Johnson & Johnson needed a way to keep personnel training practical and credible even when in-person instruction became harder to rely on.

Johnson & Johnson faced a specific operational challenge during the Covid period: how to continue induction and procedure training without depending on traditional in-person learning formats for every step.

Innovation addressed that with an augmented-reality training application designed to guide staff through procedures in a safer and more autonomous way. The point was not novelty. It was to preserve training quality under constraint.

The Challenge

Preserve effective training while reducing
dependence on physical presence.

The project needed to remain practical. A purely theoretical or passive format would not be enough for personnel responsible for critical procedures. The training system had to feel realistic, guided, and usable under conditions where conventional instruction was harder to scale.

Without that, training quality could fall, error risk could rise, and the organization would have less confidence in staff preparedness.

The Approach

Use AR, 3D simulation, and guided UX
to support more autonomous learning.

Innovation proposed a custom augmented-reality application for iOS devices that could guide personnel through specific medical procedures in a visually structured environment. The solution included realistic 3D modeling, UX/UI development for clear navigation, and performance-tracking logic to support continuous improvement.

That made the work more than a visual demo. It created a repeatable training framework that could help staff understand steps more clearly, practice with more confidence, and reduce dependence on the same level of in-person instruction.

On-Site Demonstration

The product proof matters because it shows
the system working in front of real users.

Results & Impact

A stronger training model for improving
confidence, consistency, and safety.

AR
training environment
personnel could learn through a more interactive process
iOS
custom deployment
the product was tailored to the specific training context
Safer
procedure learning
the application aimed to reduce errors while improving confidence

The solution was tied to improved personnel efficiency, fewer errors, greater confidence, and a more cost-efficient alternative to fully in-person instruction. Whether viewed as onboarding support or procedure reinforcement, it gave Johnson & Johnson a stronger digital learning layer during a high-constraint period.

Featured Video

Public showcase video
where the project was presented live.

Related questions

What is the difference between augmented reality and mixed reality for enterprise use?

Augmented reality overlays digital content on the physical world through a screen or visor — the physical environment is not affected by the digital layer. Mixed reality creates a deeper fusion: digital objects can interact with and anchor to physical surfaces, enabling more complex collaboration and data visualization scenarios. For most field operations and training use cases, AR is sufficient; MR adds value when the interaction between digital and physical needs to be bidirectional.

What industries benefit most from augmented reality in field operations?

Manufacturing (assembly guidance and quality control), energy and utilities (field inspection and maintenance), construction (as-built vs. design comparison), logistics (picking and sorting guidance), and aerospace and defense (complex systems maintenance). The common thread is complex tasks where the cost of error is high and the information a worker needs is currently disconnected from where the work happens.

What is mixed reality and how is it different from augmented and virtual reality?

Mixed reality anchors digital objects to physical surfaces and allows them to respond to the physical environment — a digital model can sit on an actual table, a remote collaborator can annotate an actual machine, a data visualization can appear inside an actual room. AR overlays but doesn't anchor; VR replaces the physical environment entirely. MR sits between: the physical world remains present and the digital layer interacts with it.

What are the primary enterprise use cases for mixed reality?

Remote expert collaboration (a specialist anywhere in the world can see what a field technician sees and annotate it in real space), spatial design review (architects and engineers reviewing a building or product design at true scale in a real space), live data visualization for operations (equipment telemetry displayed on or near the actual equipment), and complex training that requires physical environment interaction.

What types of training scenarios are best suited for virtual reality?

VR excels in scenarios where physical practice is dangerous, expensive, rare, or impossible to standardize: emergency response and safety drills, high-hazard equipment operation, surgical and medical procedures, scenario-based decision training (leadership, negotiation, de-escalation), and onboarding for complex facilities or systems that trainees haven't yet visited.

How does VR training compare to traditional e-learning in knowledge retention?

Multiple studies across military, medical, and industrial training programs show VR retention rates 20–40% higher than passive video or e-learning for procedural and decision-making tasks. The difference is driven by active engagement: VR requires the learner to make decisions and complete actions, producing stronger memory encoding than passive watching or reading.

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