How Metaverse Transform Healthcare?

 The Metaverse is a virtual environment under development by Meta (formerly Facebook), with numerous potential applications in the healthcare field. Primarily, it is envisioned that enhanced communication between patients, physicians, and collaborators could be achieved using such virtual environments, which are in high demand in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further potential benefits of the Metaverse include easy and secure data sharing, where it can be ensured that data ownership is tracked and protected while making it simple for patients to approve or for doctors to forward patient information. A few potential applications of virtual environments will be discussed below.

What exactly are virtual hospitals?

Early triage of patients over the phone or in outpatient clinics prior to referral is not a novel notion, and such procedures are increasingly being used to decrease the pressure on emergency care. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, such technologies have proven increasingly significant in diverting non-vital cases away from emergency departments and providing health advice remotely, hence reducing travel and contact. Aside from these benefits, the concept of specialised virtual hospitals may have much more to offer if completely implemented. Specialised triage centres, for example, staffed by junior doctors and healthcare professionals and overseen by a consultant, might advise a patient on whether they should seek treatment at home, visit an outpatient clinic for additional inquiry, or proceed to the hospital.

Trial centres mostly using the telephone and webcams have shown success in decreasing the emergency care burden during and after the epidemic, and services are being continued in many regions where travel restrictions have since been eased.

If consumer-grade technology reaches this stage in the future, the ability to use upgraded virtual surroundings in such virtual hospitals might be a significant help to proper triage, perhaps allowing physicians to evaluate patients in three dimensions photorealistically. In the short term, simply being able to share body language and facial expressions could be incredibly helpful in improving communication between remote patients and healthcare personnel.

What impact might the Metaverse have on data sharing?

Data kept in virtual environments can be securely shared with the use of blockchain technology, the same technology that underpins multiple cryptocurrencies and allows ownership to be recorded and access granted with the press of a button. Transferring patient records across health organisations is currently a time-consuming process that requires consent from several parties, and even acquiring one's own records can be problematic. Blockchain technology could give patients authority over their own records and allow them to provide remote access with ease.

How might the Metaverse impact patient care?

Virtual environments, such as the Metaverse, may also play a larger part in patient therapy in the future for a variety of psychiatric problems. Exposure to fear, for example, has been used to cure certain phobias, and so virtual environments might be used to gradually expose patients in a safe context. In personalised virtual experiences, such treatment procedures may also be used to other disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, or depression. The Metaverse's potential collaborative capacity would also allow therapist- or patient-led support groups to easily find one another and gather from all over the world in a more engaging setting than a text-based support group.

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