Metaverse: the future of medicine in a virtual world
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56294/mr20224Keywords:
Metaverse, Telemedicine, In SilicoAbstract
The metaverse is a virtual space that uses Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capable of recreating a world parallel to reality. In health sciences, the use of technologies in the last decade has increased dramatically, and the benefits for patients and professionals are countless. After the implementation of the quarantine by COVID-19, social isolation led to the emergence of new tools that made the health sciences interfere even more in this digital world. The applications of the metaverse in medicine range from data processing and environment simulation for the exchange between groups of patients to the simulation of surgical means, diagnostic and experimental processes, and the simulation of avatars of doctors or nurses capable of advising patients according to their clinical conditions.
References
1. Smith AC, Thomas E, Snoswell CL, Haydon H, Mehrotra A, Clemensen J, Caffery LJ. Telehealth for global emergencies: Implications for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Journal of telemedicine and telecare. 2020;26(5):309-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357633X20916567
2. Colbert GB, Venegas-Vera AV, Lerma EV. Utility of telemedicine in the COVID-19 era. Reviews in cardiovascular medicine. 2020;21(4):583-7. https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm.2020.04.188
3. Zhang T, Shen J, Lai CF, Ji S, Ren Y. Multi-server assisted data sharing supporting secure deduplication for metaverse healthcare systems. Future Generation Computer Systems. 2023;140:299-310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2022.10.031
4. Fang Z, Cai L, Wang G. MetaHuman Creator The starting point of the metaverse. In2021 International Symposium on Computer Technology and Information Science (ISCTIS) 2021 (pp. 154-157). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCTIS51085.2021.00040
5. Wiederhold BK. Ready (or Not) player one: initial musings on the metaverse. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 2022;25(1):1-2. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2021.29234.editorial
6. Lee J, Kwon KH. Future value and direction of cosmetics in the era of metaverse. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 2022;21(10):4176-4183. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocd.14794
7. Ong J, Hariprasad SM, Chhablani J. Into the RetinaVerse: A New Frontier of Retina in the Metaverse. Ophthalmic Surgery, Lasers and Imaging Retina. 2022;53(11):595-600. https://doi.org/10.3928/23258160-20221017-01
8. Kye B, Han N, Kim E, Park Y, Jo S. Educational applications of metaverse: possibilities and limitations. Journal of Educational Evaluation for Health Professions. 2021;18:32. https://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2021.18.32
9. Plechatá A, Makransky G, Böhm R. Can extended reality in the metaverse revolutionise health communication?. NPJ digital medicine. 2022;5(1):1-4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-022-00682-x
10. Hackl C. The metaverse is coming and it’sa very big deal. Forbes. 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathyhackl/2020/07/05/the-metaverse-is-coming--its-a-very-gran-deal/?sh=113cb9c9440f
11. Liu Z, Ren L, Xiao C, Zhang K, Demian P. Virtual reality aided therapy towards health 4.0: a two-decade bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022;19(3):1525. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031525
12. Mohamed N, Al-Jaroodi J, AbuKhousa E. Enabling Healthcare 4.0 applications development through a middleware platform. InDigital Innovation for Healthcare in COVID-19 Pandemic 2022 (pp. 263-305). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-821318-6.00001-3
13. Tan TF, Li Y, Lim JS, Gunasekeran DV, Teo ZL, Ng WY, Ting DS. Metaverse and virtual health care in ophthalmology: Opportunities and challenges. The Asia-Pacific Journal of Ophthalmology. 2022;11(3):237-46. https://doi.org/10.1097/APO.0000000000000537
14. Skalidis I, Muller O, Fournier S. CardioVerse: The Cardiovascular Medicine in the Era of Metaverse. Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcm.2022.05.004
15. Jat AS, Grønli TM. Smart Watch for Smart Health Monitoring: A Literature Review. InInternational Work-Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering 2022 (pp. 256-268). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07704-3_21
16. Bajaj RK, Meiring R, Beltran F. Development of a clinician-facing prototype for health monitoring using smartwatch data. ACIS 2022 Proceedings. 53. https://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2022/53
17. Debon R, Coleone JD, Bellei EA, De Marchi AC. Mobile health applications for chronic diseases: A systematic review of features for lifestyle improvement. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews. 2019;13(4):2507-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2019.07.016
18. Amagai S, Pila S, Kaat AJ, Nowinski CJ, Gershon RC. Challenges in participant engagement and retention using mobile health apps: literature review. Journal of medical Internet research. 2022;24(4):e35120. https://doi.org/10.2196/35120
19. Thomason J. Metaverse, token economies, and non-communicable diseases. Global Health Journal 2022;6:164-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.glohj.2022.07.001
20. Schuelke S, Aurit S, Connot N, Denney S. Virtual nursing: The new reality in quality care. Nursing administration quarterly. 2019;43(4):322-8. https://doi.org/10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000376
21. De Gagne JC, Randall PS, Rushton S, et al. The Use of Metaverse in Nursing Education: An Umbrella Review. Nurse Educator. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1097/nne.0000000000001327
22. Carraro GU, Cortes M, Edmark JT, Ensor JR. The peloton bicycling simulator. In Proceedings of the third symposium on Virtual reality modeling language. 1998 (pp. 63-70). https://doi.org/10.1145/271897.274372
23. Petrigna L, Musumeci G. The Metaverse: A New Challenge for the Healthcare System: A Scoping Review. Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology. 2022;7(3):63. https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk7030063
24. Nguyen HV, Tan GS, Tapp RJ, Mital S, Ting DS, Wong HT, Tan CS, Laude A, Tai ES, Tan NC, Finkelstein EA. Cost-effectiveness of a national telemedicine diabetic retinopathy screening program in Singapore. Ophthalmology. 2016;123(12):2571-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2016.08.021
25. Vinekar A, Jayadev C, Mangalesh S, Shetty B, Vidyasagar D. Role of tele-medicine in retinopathy of prematurity screening in rural outreach centers in India–a report of 20,214 imaging sessions in the KIDROP program. Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine. 2015;20:335-345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.siny.2015.05.002
26. Huang OS, Chew AC, Finkelstein EA, Wong TT, Lamoureux EL. Outcomes of an Asynchronous Virtual Glaucoma Clinic in Monitoring Patients at Low Risk of Glaucoma Progression in Singapore. The Asia-Pacific Journal of Ophthalmology. 2021;10(3):328-34. https://doi.org/10.1097/APO.0000000000000402
27. Li B, Powell AM, Hooper PL, Sheidow TG. Prospective evaluation of teleophthalmology in screening and recurrence monitoring of neovascular age-related macular degeneration: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA ophthalmology. 2015;133(3):276-82. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2014.5014
28. Souverein EA, Kim JW, Loudin NN, Johnston J, Stewart C, Reid MW, Lee TC, Nallasamy S. Feasibility of asynchronous video-based telemedicine in the diagnosis and management of paediatric blepharoptosis. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare. 2021:1357633X20985394. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357633X20985394
29. Wu X, Huang Y, Liu Z, Lai W, Long E, Zhang K, Jiang J, Lin D, Chen K, Yu T, Wu D. Universal artificial intelligence platform for collaborative management of cataracts. British Journal of Ophthalmology. 2019;103(11):1553-60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2019-314729
30. Long E, Lin H, Liu Z, Wu X, Wang L, Jiang J, An Y, Lin Z, Li X, Chen J, Li J. An artificial intelligence platform for the multihospital collaborative management of congenital cataracts. Nature biomedical engineering. 2017;1(2):1-8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-016-0024
31. Tan TF, Li Y, Lim JS, Gunasekeran DV, Teo ZL, Ng WY, Ting DS. Metaverse and virtual health care in ophthalmology: Opportunities and challenges. The Asia-Pacific Journal of Ophthalmology. 2022;11(3):237-46. https://doi.org/10.1097/APO.0000000000000537
32. Bansal G, Rajgopal K, Chamola V, Xiong Z, Niyato D. Healthcare in Metaverse: A Survey On Current Metaverse Applications in Healthcare. IEEE Access. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3219845
33. Tagaytayan R, Kelemen A, Sik-Lanyi C. Augmented reality in neurosurgery. Archives of Medical Science. 2018 Apr 13;14(3):572-8. https://doi.org/10.5114/aoms.2016.58690
34. Highton L, Ekwobi C. Use of the AccuVein device to map the superficial venous system. European Journal of Plastic Surgery. 2011;34(4):305-6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-011-0583-0
35. Reinders IM, Cremers GR, van Rooijen SJ, Leemans JC, Perquin CW, Geomini PM, Maas JW, Bongers MY. The effect of an informative 360-degree virtual reality video on anxiety for women visiting the one-stop clinic for abnormal uterine bleeding: A randomized controlled trial (VISION-trial). European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology. 2022;272:96-103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2022.02.179
36. Hajesmaeel-Gohari S, Sarpourian F, Shafiei E. Virtual reality applications to assist pregnant women: a scoping review. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2021;21(1):1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-021-03725-5
37. Cerasa A, Gaggioli A, Marino F, Riva G, Pioggia G. The promise of the metaverse in mental health: the new era of MEDverse. Heliyon. 2022:e11762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11762
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Carlos Miguel Campos Sánchez, Guillén León, Rossio Cristina Acosta Yanes, Marcos Antonio Gil Oloriz (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Unless otherwise stated, associated published material is distributed under the same licence.
