How Metaverse Will Transform Healthcare?
Metaverse in health: For whom and for what?
The Metaverse has a range of potential applications in the healthcare sector, which could benefit both the patient and the practitioner.
For patients, the Metaverse could be used to access virtual healthcare services such as telemedicine or remote consultations with doctors; allow remote monitoring of vital signs or physical activity; facilitate self-management of chronic diseases; and even enable immersive education on health topics
For practitioners, the Metaverse can be used for distance learning through virtual seminars and conferences to access real-time data from medical equipment and simulations, to collaborate on research projects with colleagues in different locations, and for virtual mental health care accessible regardless of geographic location.
Metaverse with seniors in nursing homes:
The Metaverse can also be used to allow seniors living in EHPAD (Housing Establishment for Dependent Elderly People) to access meaningful activities and social engagement remotely.
Using the platform, seniors can virtually connect with friends and family and engage in virtual social activities such as game nights, watching movies together, or attending virtual concerts or museum tours.
Additionally, the Metaverse could allow healthcare providers to remotely monitor patients’ vital signs and create personalized programs tailored to each patient’s individual needs.
These could be cognitive rehabilitation exercises, physical activity programs to track progress over time, or even simple games designed to improve motor skills and coordination by allowing elderly people in nursing homes to access meaningful activities and social engagement.
The Metaverse has the potential to improve their quality of life and reduce loneliness by allowing them to stay in touch with family and friends from a distance.
Additionally, it could also potentially help healthcare providers better monitor patients’ vital signs and provide programs tailored to each individual’s needs, leading to improved health outcomes.
Overall, the Metaverse can be a powerful tool to ensure that seniors living in nursing homes live healthier and more fulfilling lives.
A patient and physician-centered experience
As the metaverse evolves, so too does the potential for virtual reality (VR) to provide an immersive experience that rivals or even exceeds real life. The possibility of interaction between patient and doctor avatars opens up new opportunities for consultation and even treatment. The patient avatar would carry the real patient’s electronic medical records, giving the doctor a full picture of their health background. Medical advisory services – nutrition advice, addiction counseling and telemedicine in general – could all be delivered via VR, providing patients with more convenient access to care.
VR and AR have the potential to revolutionize healthcare as we know it. For example, elderly patients can stay active and entertained by participating in immersive fitness and entertainment programs from the comfort of their own homes. By simply looking at a medicine package, key information such as daily dosage or typical reactions can be displayed for all to see – this is thanks to the wonderful world of augmented reality. Plus, medical students and physicians can get some much-needed practice in before working on real patients by carrying out procedures in a simulated environment.
This is a trend that’s not going anywhere anytime soon. In October 2022, an innovative medical software company that uses mixed reality and machine learning reported the first reconstructive surgery using the company’s proprietary surgical system. The company has redefined the setup and workflow of the operating room and surgical team, making things more efficient and seamless.
Accelerating clinical trials with digital twins
Digital twins are virtual models that can be used to represent real-world objects or beings. With enough data, these models can be realistic and accurate enough to run simulations with real-world value. This is a highly attractive possibility for life sciences companies.
In the metaverse, you can also separate organs or physical systems from the overall organism, enabling a more nuanced approach. This could be very valuable for life sciences companies who want to run simulations with real-world value. Pharmaceutical companies are already exploring how to create an exact digital twin of a human body so it seems likely that virtual clinical trials will soon be part of the clinical testing landscape.
A multiplication of benefits
When it comes to advantages that the healthcare and life sciences industries stand to gain from the metaverse, there are quite a few. For example, surgeries could be conducted more efficiently, access to therapy and counselling would be improved, and patient data would be more secure. However, it’s important not to see the metaverse in isolation but rather in the context of other transformative developments. For instance, as we enter the age of personalized medicine, reliable and secure health data becomes even more valuable for patients and the physicians treating them. As such, the metaverse could play a role in enhancing data and analytics.
We believe that healthcare combined with the metaverse has the potential to make a difference in the world and create value in an innovative way.
There’s still a lot of work to be done, but there are already some amazing things happening. Regulatory hurdles, data privacy concerns, and hardware limitations will need to be addressed. At the same time, healthcare stakeholders will need to rethink their operating models to function and thrive in this decentralized space. But when they do, everyone will benefit. For more information reach us at www.philomathresearch.com