From Telemedicine to Virtual Hospitals: The Metaverse's Impact on Healthcare

The metaverse is poised to revolutionize various industries, from gaming and entertainment to socializing and commerce. However, its transformative impact on healthcare has been largely overlooked. The convergence of telepresence, digital twinning, and blockchain in the metaverse can create new channels for delivering care, lowering costs, and improving patient outcomes.?

Telepresence, also known as telemedicine, enables the remote provision of medicine. It experienced a surge in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 95% of healthcare facilities now able to provide remote patient treatment. Virtual reality, a key technology enabling the next-level immersion that qualifies a platform or application as part of the metaverse, opens up a new range of possibilities. VR-based telemedicine consultations mean patients are no longer limited to being treated by particular clinicians due to their physical location. Scans and tests can be conducted locally, and data can be transferred to specialists worldwide. It's particularly useful in remote regions with a shortage of medical professionals or patients.?

Digital twinning involves creating a virtual model or simulation of any object, process, or system generated using real-world data. In the case of the Metaverse, the digital twin could be the patient themselves. Digital twins will eventually become "test dummies" for individuals, predicting everything from how we will recover from surgery to our reactions to specific medicines. With our increasing ability to map and understand individual genetics, we'll be able to fast-forward and see the outcome we'll get if we follow a particular protocol for the next ten years.?

Blockchain technology allows for secure storage and data transfer in a way that no one except the data owner can tamper with. In healthcare, it can manage and secure highly valuable health data. Currently, data is often shared between multiple organizations in an inefficient and opaque manner, with centralized servers putting data at risk of being stolen. Blockchain technology allows everyone to own their records on a personal file, making it unhackable and accessible to clinicians worldwide.?

The convergence of these core technologies in online environments, the metaverse, means healthcare professionals can deliver more joined-up treatment programs and packages unhindered by the siloed nature of the existing healthcare system. Swift information sharing between clinicians means underlying causes of ill health can be established more quickly. Monitoring patient activity in the metaverse means factors such as compliance can be tracked more easily, further assisting with diagnosing and treating illness.?

Virtual hospitals, accessed through a headset, are currently being developed by some healthcare providers. They comprise a virtual reality hospital environment, where treatments focus on counseling and physiotherapy services. Physiotherapy uses computer vision and cameras to investigate the range of motion in damaged joints and the progress patients make toward recovery. With VR and AR, patients can receive much better feedback on their progress, improving motivation and compliance.?

While there may be hurdles to overcome, such as attitudes towards receiving treatment online or remotely and equality of access, the opportunities offered by the metaverse are likely to be addressed in time. Digital-first healthcare providers can successfully show that their innovation will reduce costs and improve patient outcomes. The intersection of the metaverse and healthcare is a game-changing frontier poised to transform how we approach medical treatment and patient care.?

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