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Healthcare and metaverse: A partnership built to last
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Highlights
- Globally, more than $120 billion was invested in metaverse in 2022 and now the healthcare industry is gaining momentum by using metaverse technology.
- Metaverse provides the right technology to make it possible to create a virtual platform that can simulate human emotions and gestures to provide accurate remote treatment and reduce the caseload for the industry.
- The 43% has increased to 95% because healthcare providers can reach more patients and provide consultations without needing physical examination.
In this article
Impact and Training
Using metaverse to train and simplify complex diagnoses
Metaverse aims to simplify complex diagnoses and treatments by combining virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The increasing connectivity provided by 5G networks further aids this partnership.
Virtual reality helps train doctors and medical staff on the latest and rare medical procedures, providing equal learning opportunities for everyone. It offers a 360° view of the human body so that each one can get a close view of the illness and treatment procedure from anywhere in the world. The interactions can be recorded and reviewed for a granular learning experience. Virtual reality training tools can simulate complicated real-world procedures, enabling new doctors to develop hands-on training experience.
Gamifying medicine
Physiotherapy through Metaverse and Telemedicine
Gamification is the best way to engage users to use healthcare apps. Virtual instructors connect with their clients to personalize smarter workouts to encourage fitness. The same concept can be extended to physiotherapy for relief and pain management.
Virtual reality in the metaverse platform allows patients and doctors to be in the same room even though they are physically apart in different countries. With virtual reality headsets, patients can have a private consultation with specialists and experts who are physically miles away. Patients can complete the scans and tests in local laboratories and share the data with the experts virtually. Telemedicine is beneficial in countries with a shortage of medical professionals. It is also instrumental in therapy to personalize environments for patients. Psychiatrists and psychologists can provide aversion therapy using VR.
Medical Digital Twin
Use cases for surgical remote proctoring
The healthcare industry uses robots and robotic arms to perform precise and complex surgical procedures. These robotic arms are used in real-time to ensure accuracy and precision during complicated spinal cord surgeries or hard-to-reach tumor resurrection procedures. Recently, breast surgery was performed in the metaverse by Dr. Pedro Gouveia in Lisbon by collaborating with Dr. Rogelio Andres-Luna, at the University of Zaragoza, Spain.
The first live experiment was called remote proctoring, where Dr. Andres Luna showed Dr. Gouveia sites to be extra careful with as he was physically operating. Mixed reality Hololens goggles and private 5G connectivity enabled the surgeons to perform the surgery as if they were in the same operating room even though Dr. Andres-Luna was about 560 miles away.
A digital twin can become a test dummy to personalize complicated treatments and understand patient reactions before making a difficult decision. Digital twins can significantly help in understanding genetics. By analyzing the digital twins, future problems can be identified early so that symptoms and, sometimes, illnesses can be prevented.
A digital twin is a twin in the virtual world created based on the collective information of a patient available in the real world.
Patients and Technology
Patient management using blockchain technology
Health data and patient information are stored in centralized data sources in the healthcare industry, making it difficult to access critical data immediately. This type of storage increases data theft risk because health records can be sold for up to $100 on the dark web. Sometimes, getting patient information across jurisdictions may take several days, and the patient's health could deteriorate rapidly. Blockchain technology allows individual patients to store their data, guaranteeing security, safety, accuracy, and accessibility.
Metaverse will be useful in creating a self-service healthcare ecosystem so patients can quickly access information, services, and offerings they need on-demand. It also helps healthcare professionals to ensure compliance with data privacy regulations.
Apollo Hospitals Group has collaborated with 8chili Inc to expand healthcare in India using metaverse. Yashoda Hospitals Group in Hyderabad has also purchased land on Decentraland to establish an experience zone. The hospital chains hope to improve patient care by investing in the metaverse.
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