Internet in Medicine University Course: Virtual Reality in Medicine

The 6th week of the world’s first university accredited course focusing on medicine and social media was dedicated to virtual reality in medicine.

First slideshow:

• Definition of virtual worlds
• Why do we need a second life?
• community + online games + simulation
• One example is secondlife.com

A shorter version of the original slideshow with my own narration:

• More than 20 million users, 30,000,000 online hours
• What does SL mean for people?
• It used to mean gambling (but not now)
• Game? work? (The number of Second Life residents generating more than $5,000 in monthly income has more than quadrupled to 116 in the past year, according to San Francisco’s Linden Lab, owner of Second Life.); place?; tool?; entertainment?; sport?; opportunity?; appearance?
• Technological barriers: register, download, install, open, log in
• You can fly, walk, teleport, buy, sell, build.

• Communication (chat, IM, e-mail, voice)

• advantages (3D, media content, fast communication – SL fitness)
• disadvantages (reliability, serious hardware requirement)
• why do we need a SL?

Source

• Virtual Reality (VR) examples in therapies

Take-home message: great opportunities for patients and medical professionals as well.

Second slideshow:

• Summary of how Second Life can be used in medicine and healthcare

• How do medical students and physicians use it?
• AMMC
• Imperial College of London
• NHS London
• Scifoo Lives On
• Genome Island and many more
• Patients?
• Healthinfo Island
• Virtual Ability
• SLStroke and many more
• Where to follow health events?

Take-home message: Second Life provides useful tools to organize meetings, educate and learn without borders.

Free e-guide about medicine and virtual worlds on Webicina.