New Delhi: Metaverse, the new buzzword among healthcare, the collective virtual shared space is no longer a mystery box. This new emerging technology which is better known in the cryptocurrency market and gaming segment is now slowly spreading to the healthcare domain. Some major hospitals are already adapting to the digital virtual space of ‘Metaverse’. But, ETHealthWorld explores what this ‘really’ means for healthcare? How this technology will make transformative changes, break the physical laws of the real world and redefine the future of healthcare.
Answering these questions, domain experts share that Metaverse is here to disrupt the traditional healthcare ecosystem. It will make things easier for patients to overcome geographic barriers and create unlimited possibilities for delivering treatment, reducing costs and significantly improving patient outcomes in healthcare.
Striking a balance between the physical and virtual worlds
Metaverse is not just a hype, but it’s real, when it comes to healthcare, inform the healthcare bigwigs. The path to Metaverse adoption is accelerating, as telemedicine bridges the gap between healthcare delivery and digitization. Robotic surgery and remote monitoring pickup.
Informing that Metaverse is here to stay in healthcare, Rajeev Sikka, Group CIO, Medanta Hospitals, whose views are expressed here are personal opinions ETHealthWorld says that from the early stages of gaming, entertainment and socialization, the technology to support Metaverse is advancing. is The role of change in healthcare.
“There are many clear positive trends but the most important in my opinion is that some of the underlying technologies that comprise the metaverse have already existed for a relatively long time and include VR/AR, AI, IOT, robotics, block-chain, etc. All these technologies , although individually have the potential to impact healthcare delivery, but together, can dramatically improve patient care, increase efficiency and, hopefully, reduce the cost of delivery. Additionally, the commercialization of advanced processing power such as “Quantum and edge computing, intelligent clouds and Web 3.0 are increasing scalability and speed of deployment. The rolling out of 5G, will further add to the fast speed network experience,” Sikka added.
Mentioning that Metaverse could be revolutionary in healthcare, Lalit Mistry, Partner and Co-Head, Healthcare Sector, KPMG India said, “Metaverse is a collective virtual shared space, created virtually through the convergence of augmented physical and digital reality. Technology can be instrumental in bringing the patient and the healthcare provider closer together with enhanced immersive experiences like face-to-face consultations. It can help patients in remote locations get the right care, right diagnosis, medical treatment or medical assistance. In real time and golden hours. Meanwhile, the processes of specialists sitting in different geographical areas. It has the potential to open new channels for delivering treatment, potentially reducing treatment delivery costs and significantly improving patient outcomes. At the same time, the balance between a real and virtual world will make people addicted to the virtual world and from it. unable to extricate itself. So it is important to find a way to balance the relationship between the real world and the metaverse, Ba Allowing Daman to play a more positive role.”
Informing that digital healthcare supported by technology plays a key role in delivering value-based care across the healthcare spectrum across the globe, Vishal Gondal, Founder-CEO, GOQii said, “Adaptive intelligent solutions can help reduce barriers between hospitals and patients, healthcare Improving access to services and increasing overall patient satisfaction, especially in small towns and cities. Currently, people are not motivated or motivated enough to change lives, Open Metaverse can change this. Health Metaverse’ can empower people in the virtual as well as the physical world. to adopt a healthy lifestyle and receive incentives in the form of tokens or rewards.”
According to experts, the new technology should strike the best balance between virtual and in-person healthcare. The metaverse is seen as the horizon where both the physical and virtual worlds merge. It should be properly defined and further promoted how telemedicine, remote monitoring, digital twins and block chain technologies are used.
Making the virtual ‘reality’
Metaverse technology is set to be able to create a completely new perspective for the practice of medicine, as it breaks the physical laws of the real world, health experts say.
Talking about the era of digital health, which is transforming healthcare in India at a rapid pace, Girish Raghavan, Vice President-Engineering, GE Healthcare, said, “At the forefront of this evolution are key exponential technologies like AI/ML, AR/ VR, which has gathered to act as a catalyst for a metaverse in healthcare. Driving efficiency and simplicity in data sharing across systems is key when introducing scalable health solutions. Metaverse presents an opportunity for healthcare practitioners – with integrated health information, remote monitoring and rapid data sharing, enabling clinician collaboration, treatment pathways can become more informed and holistic — drawing on comprehensive patient data.
Further, giving a detailed insight, Sikka informed that an anticipatory and important applicability of Metaverse in healthcare would be preoperative surgical planning, which is a critical success factor for any surgery.
“In a surgery, a surgeon has to navigate through a complex 3D space. Traditionally, surgeons relied on non-intuitive 2D scans (videos or images) and mentally reconstructed their 3D counterparts as a precursor to surgery. This conversion skill from 2D to 3D Depend on the personal experience of a highly skilled surgeon, which is not measurable, and sometimes, may not be precise enough for complex surgery. With Metaverse, different images (CT, MRI, DTI, angiography etc.), to create an interactive and immersive environment. can be fused. This way of pre-operative offers close to perfect planning by simulating real patient models. Furthermore, the Metaverse platform can be highly customizable at every level, be it patient models, surgical scenarios and other parameters. Live During surgery, Metaverse technology in conjunction with actual scans of the patient can assist surgeons with the much-needed 3-D X-ray vision of the patient’s anatomy,” informs Sikka.
He also added that the Metaverse platform provides the next level for effective patient education and disease awareness by helping anxious patients earlier in the procedure and obtaining more informed surgical consent. Another important relevance of Metaverse will be reshaping the future of therapy delivery. Being part of a highly sensitive environment, healthcare staff need dedicated training in skills, knowledge, behavior and discipline. Metaverse is a cost-effective, scalable, high-impact and long-lasting training platform for staff behaviour.
Telemedicine, digital twins and Blockchain With the technology growing by leaps and bounds thanks to Metaverse, Mistry said, “The healthcare and medical sectors have a great opportunity to provide highly enhanced telemedicine experiences with Metaverse and access healthcare across geographic boundaries. In 3-D format which Create what is known as a digital twin of a body part or the entire human body that allows for surgery as well as diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Digital twins can be used in drug clinical trials, medical care, and help provide more efficient and effective services to patients. surgical rehearsals to perform. AI can create pre-life simulations to create digital prediction models for patients, providing predictive record analysis and decision support throughout their lives.”
Elaborating on the telemedicine and block-chain factor, Sikka said, “Block-chain, as part of the essential technology component of Metaverse, is best suited to address concerns about the sensitivity of patient data. Every aspect of business has the potential for disruption. Or being disrupted, And healthcare is no different. In my opinion, Metaverse has the potential for disruptive change, and more so in tertiary healthcare. The next logical step for telemedicine is to transition to Metaverse for a more life-like experience with remote delivery. “Being there” compared to traditional video conferencing platforms. A greater understanding of.”
Moving into the era of the digital patient
Experts point out that Metaverse offers an opportunity to recreate an interactive version of content, where users are immersed in and engaged with the content.
“Metaverse is going to transform the next generation as it will essentially make every patient in the world feel in control of their health as every piece of data they want to know will be instantly available in front of their eyes. Additionally, healthcare providers will be able to fully utilize their expertise. Not to do basic treatment and diagnosis, but to be able to take critical decisions during life-threatening situations,” Mistry said.
In the health metaverse, domain professionals will be able to deliver more collaborative treatment programs that will not be constrained by the current dysfunctional nature of the current healthcare system, Gondal said, “which will benefit in terms of rapid information exchange between doctors and clinicians. And that means is that underlying causes of ill health can be established more quickly. Monitoring patient activity in Metaverse means that factors such as adherence can be tracked more easily, which will further aid in the diagnosis and treatment of illness.”
Mistry emphasized that Metaverse will help healthcare providers interact with the patient and work efficiently in an interoperable, less centralized, fully digital environment. He explained that the adoption of Metaverse in healthcare is based on engaging patients in the same way that companies use the web, social media or smart speakers to engage with or deliver their products to consumers.
According to experts, the newly emerging virtual space will revolutionize the way people interact, connect and work together but at the same time there are challenges to overcome.
Highlighting some of the challenges, Sikka said, “Before Metaverse expands into healthcare, it has to address some of the challenges of handsets and attractive applications. The available headsets are expensive, uncomfortable and clumsy. Moreover, the high cost of headsets should not contribute much to healthcare access. There is an already existing disparity. Also, apps have to be calibrated for precision, tertiary healthcare demands, and integrate all five senses, including haptic.”
Adding to that, Mistry implied that lack of interoperability and uniformity between different Metaverse platforms could be a challenge. The technology is currently expensive and AR/VR tools are not that easy to set up, this may limit Metaverse to a small customer segment.
Overall, experts cite that with increased interest and investment, there must be a well-thought-out roadmap and omnichannel delivery architecture for Metaverse adoption in the healthcare domain. This virtual bus journey needs to culminate in the real and reel world as it will deal with the patient’s life when it comes to the healthcare domain.
