Alex is just one example of an increasing number of sick, disabled and troubled people who say virtual worlds are helping them fight their diseases, live with their disabilities and sometimes even begin to recover. Researchers say they are only starting to appreciate the impact of this phenomenon. The virtual environment has several possibilities in improving care experience by creating a delightful patient experience.
Creating virtual social connections: In my mind this may become very impactful especially for patient like Alex. Second Life will soon be able to help people visualize their dreams, leave their dysfunctional bodies behind. Keeping people connected is the key to the human experience and Second Life and others like are creating a place where handicap is forgotten and true interaction can take place. Loneliness could be removed by engaging in meaningful online games, events that would energize patients.
Online Consultation: Second Life could be used as Telemedicine Platform. Dr. Peter Yellowlees, a psychiatrist at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento and my Health Informatics professor, set up a "virtual psychosis" environment through Second Life to help people understand the kinds of hallucinations that those with schizophrenia and other mental disorders have.
A relevant New Yorker article describes how virtual environment could be utilized for early treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/19/080519fa_fact_halpern
Many US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are being treated using virtual experiences. The soldiers are generally embarrassed to discuss mental health issues while they are still in battlefield. Second Life could provide a safe environment for them to discuss the challenges from the remote battle location. We do not need to fly expensive and scarce resources to battlefield for treatments.
Along the same line, second life is a great open consultation platform for persons with socially embarrassing diseases: premature ejaculation, and HIV/AIDS.
Helping patients to become “Compliant”: Several doctors including my professor, Dr. Yellowlees, complained that patients do not follow their advice, especially patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes. One of the possible mitigation could be second life. If patient could experience the Yoga, Meditation, Running etc. in second life with their socially connected avatars, possibly they would be delighted and motivated to perform the same in real life. I think we have to move away from “compliance” to “compassion” – delight the patients with meaningful interactive experience. Of course, a lot of thought needs to be given on how to design such a platform to create a memorable experience.
Furthermore, second life could be used as a platform to demonstrate usage of certain devices or therapy options. Visualization is a powerful memorization tool.
Now, let’s investigate what system elements are required to make virtual reality a platform for telemedicine:
Establish Trusted Relationships: The second life must be linked to real life. The doctors have to display their credentials, provide a e-mail or phone numbers. And short bios.
Strengthen System Security: Second Life has improved security and privacy in recent years. A better system for sign-up and authentication is required.
Use real patient data: A check to make sure the person used real names, gender etc.
Create a payment model: The insurance industry needs to create a reimbursement model for this type of consultation.
Integrate with onsite model: Integrated with other care settings. For example- accessibility of medical record while treating patients in second life.
Hello Adrish.
ReplyDeleteI'm Eme Capalini and I’m a volunteer for Virtual Ability, Inc. Gentle Heron, to whom your post refers is actually Alice Krueger, not Alex. Alice is president of the RL nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation Virtual Ability, Inc., and runs the Virtual Ability group in Second Life.
We'd be happy to invite you and your readers to contact us through our website at http://www.virtualability.org/ if you'd like a guided tour of our Community Gateway on Virtual Ability Island.
We'd like to add the comment that reputable health care professionals who practice or consult or provide information through SL do share their credentials. This is already common practice. As to system security, HIPAA compliance is an important consideration. And as to payment model, I believe there is already a billing code for tele-medicine.
Thanks for highlighting the opportunities to serve people in a virtual setting. For a short literature review of the benefits to people with disabilities of being in a virtual community, please see http://virtualability.org/va_medical_benefits.aspx