Metaverse healthcare use cases
Jeffrey Boopathy
Assistant Manager - Product Marketing @Giift | Documenting my product marketing journey for the new and transitioning PMMs
The term metaverse is being recently used in the healthcare sector. I am sure you would have seen my posts regarding the use cases that's been implemented by universities and hospitals. Metaverse refers to a virtual reality world that connects patients and providers. This can be used for various purposes, including providing education, offering support, etc.
If you look at a more general aspect, the Metaverse is a communication tool that connects real-world and virtual experiences. It's a digital setting with Augmented Reality and virtual reality mechanisms that will alter how we interact, communicate, and access information. It is a shared space network where you don't have to worry about logging in all the time.
The concept of a single, established metaverse is still hypothetical and science fiction. However, despite that, some tech giants have continued to create metaverse-like experiences like virtual fashion shows, live concerts, and workplaces.
One of the technologies that are powering the Metaverse is Virtual Reality. It is quickly becoming a staple in the medical community. It is being used to help treat everything from pain to anxiety. VR can also provide surgeons with a more accurate view of the inside of a patient's body before surgery. This technology is changing the way doctors treat their patients.
There are many benefits of Metaverse in healthcare.
For example, it can help doctors and nurses better understand the patient's medical history. This is because the Metaverse can provide a virtual representation of the patient that includes all of their medical records. In addition, Metaverse can train healthcare professionals and provide information about new treatments and medical procedures.
If you are a healthcare professional and looking to start your Metaverse or Virtual Reality sessions for your patients, there are many ways to do so. There is much online software that you can sign up for, but if you are really serious about it, then the best option would be to approach a metaverse development company.
A metaverse development company will help you by creating a healthcare avatar and creating a virtual clinic or a hospital based on your need. The patient can explore many healthcare facilities, meet healthcare professionals, and learn about the many ways how they can improve mental health in the Metaverse.
Metaverse healthcare use cases
Neuro reality
The term "neuro reality" describes a reality controlled by tools that communicate with the brain in real-time. While a user must physically respond to external stimuli to use a standard VR system (such as swinging a controller to use a virtual sword on a screen), a neuroreality system communicates with the user's biology directly via a brain-computer interface (BCI).
When we dream, we tend to focus on what's in front of us and act without moving any of our body parts. Neuro reality will enable us to bypass body movements and act according to our brain signals. Physicist Dan Cook's company is exploring this using brain wave-detecting hardware technology to enable a more seamless VR experience.
Telepresence
Only 43% of healthcare facilities could treat patients remotely as of 2020. Today, the percentage is 95%. Doctors and nurses have discovered that they can diagnose many minor conditions that make up the vast majority of their caseload more quickly and efficiently via a telephone or video call for routine consultations that don't require a physical examination or that can be carried out visually.
Patients are no longer constrained to being treated by specific clinicians due to their physical location thanks to telemedicine consultations using Virtual Reality. Companies already practising telemedicine are sesame care, PlushCare, Teladoc, and HealthTap. With the growth of Metaverse, a lot of healthcare companies offering Telepresence will pivot to using VR/AR headsets.
Gamification to bring together healthcare practitioners
Metaverse being a platform primarily for gaming and entertainment, is blasting its way through various other industries. As we can see, one of the prominent industries utilizing this technology is healthcare. With the help of the Metaverse, the gamification idea can be brought into healthcare applications as well.
Currently, gamification in the healthcare industry is mostly limited to wellness and fitness apps. For example, apps like StepN rewards users in crypto for the number of steps taken by them. With Nike introducing digital footwear in the Metaverse as NFTs, there is a possibility they might bring this same idea but in a virtual world.
Recently Cambridge University has done some research using VR headsets on patients who are suffering from anxiety. The patients are taken to a simulated virtual world where they will be trained to overcome their anxiety and fear through gamification.
Using Metaverse, anyone can fantasize, create, or have fun with friends. Augmented Reality has also been used to create better workouts and virtual teachers for guidance.
A mental healthcare metaverse called Bump Galaxy was developed based on Minecraft. Through gaming environments, this study seeks to alleviate patients' mental health concerns. This "gaming world treatment" will aid patients in overcoming trauma, despair, and anxiety and help them feel safe and supported by society. Using this bottom-up approach, the deep hypnotic visions will help the community build mental toughness and well-being.
Digital Twin Technology
A digital twin in the Metaverse is a virtual representation of a real-world object or system that can be used to simulate and analyze its performance in a virtual environment. In the context of the Metaverse, a digital twin can be used to create a virtual version of a physical object or space, allowing users to interact with it in a virtual setting. The technology can be used in a variety of industries, such as architecture, manufacturing, and urban planning, to test designs and make improvements before physical prototypes are built.
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In the healthcare sector, as we all know from seeing just the movies, in order to perform surgery, we need tons of equipment. Using digital twin technology, we can replicate these tools in a virtual setting. For example, if a doctor wants to teach their med students how to perform heart surgery in an immersive environment, it can be done so using this technology.
You can check out the below video to get an idea about digital twin technology.
Virtual Hospital/Clinics
In simple terms, virtual hospitals are virtual spaces in the Horizon worlds or virtual worlds created by a separate healthcare company. Below given are some of the few instances inside a virtual hospital.
In June 2022, Thumbay Group, a healthcare company based in the United Arab Emirates, announced plans to open the world's first virtual hospital located within the Metaverse. The hospital will use augmented and virtual reality technology to provide immersive doctor-patient experiences, with patients accessing the hospital through their virtual avatars. The hospital's founder and president, Dr. Thumbary Moideen, stated that the hospital would be fully virtual.
Radiology visualization
On 2D screens, medical images are displayed slice by slice during radiology diagnosis. The value of disease analysis and surgical planning may improve by providing an advanced visualization of medical imaging. Thanks to the Metaverse's immersive and visualization capabilities, more engaging and lifelike medical experiences can be provided.
A top manufacturer of medical devices uses Virtual Reality (VR) to effectively teach its medical robot. The company also offers an imaging solution for augmented Reality that uses machine learning algorithms to give surgeons important image data for surgery planning and as a training tool.
Augmented Reality Surgeries in Patients
The use of artificial virtual content to enhance the sense of Reality is known as augmented Reality (AR). The term augmented Reality (AR) refers to a method of combining digital content that a computer has artificially created with real-world things. Using Augmented Reality, a user could see 3D virtual things in the real world. A surgeon can use augmented Reality (AR) in medicine to visualize hidden organs inside a person and enhance their understanding of the treatment process by engaging with the actual environment.
Johns Hopkins neurosurgeons carried out the first augmented reality procedures at the university on live patients. The first surgery was performed on June 8, 2020, when six screws were inserted into a patient's spine to fuse three vertebrae to treat the patient's severe, incapacitating back pain. On June 10, during the second operation, doctors removed a chordoma, a malignant growth from a patient's spine. According to the doctors, both patients are doing well.
The California-based software business 8Chili has created a new Metaverse platform called HintVR. It is intended for clinicians, paramedics, medical students, patients, and content curators. Advanced 3D visualization for image-guided surgeries is offered to surgeons, but they are also given creative and immersive methods for interacting with patients before and after operations.
Virtual Therapy
A lot of predictions are going on the internet that in the year 2023 Mental health will become mainstream. One of the immersive ways to implement this is using Metaverse a.k.a virtual therapy. This technology will help us people overcome fears and phobias.
It works by gradually exposing the patient to the source of their anxiety in a controlled, simulated environment, with the guidance of a therapist. This therapy has been shown to be effective in treating anxiety, phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
It can be particularly useful for people who are socially avoidant, as it allows them to practice social interactions in a safe, virtual setting. It can also be helpful for people who have experienced trauma, as it allows them to revisit and process their experiences in a controlled environment with the guidance of a therapist.
Researchers at Orygen, the national centre of excellence in youth mental health in Australia, are currently testing VR interventions for young people with complex mental health challenges.
Final words
A few of the above technologies are still in the development phase and are soon to be in practice. There are a lot of reports and predictions that Metaverse in the healthcare industry could be a promising sector. If you are a healthcare professional please mention your thoughts. Happy to hear them.