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Scifoo: Virtual Worlds Session July 14, 2009

Posted by Bertalan Meskó in Conference, Second Life, Slideshow, Web 2.0.
2 comments

I co-organized a session at this year’s Scifoo with Andrew Lang. We focused on virtual worlds and how they can be used in medicine and science.

Andrew Scifoo

Andrew published his slides:

I described what I’ve been doing in Second Life regarding medical case presentations and presented a new virtual world, Visuland.com,  which I will feature on Scienceroll for several times in the next few weeks. It’s still in beta, but will be improved constantly and is created by 3 talented Hungarian developers. Click here to see my presentation:

life after second life

How to use Second Life in Medicine: Free e-Guide June 29, 2009

Posted by Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Virtuality, Web 2.0, Webicina.
8 comments

On Webicina.com, the first medical web 2.0 guidance service, I keep creating free e-guides for doctors in order to help them get closer to the web 2.0 world and make their online presence as efficient as possible. Now here is “Medicine in Second Life“, a free e-guide in which I provide step-by-step tutorials about how to enter the virtual world and organize medical meetings or case presentations.

sl in medicine

Please take a look at the table of contents:

Next week, Webicina will release a new Web 2.0 Guidance Package focusing on Radiology resources.

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A meeting at the Ann Myers Medical Center

Free Webicina content:

Near-real Clinical Experience in Second Life June 21, 2009

Posted by Bertalan Meskó in Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Virtuality, Web 2.0.
2 comments

I’ve recently come across the island of the University of Auckland, New Zealand in Second Life where they try to create a medical simulation.

This simulation is being constructed to explore the potential of virtual worlds to offer near-real clinical and human experiences for medical training.

Most of the “build” to date has been focused on the physical structures and equipment, however continued work will be to animate equipment and avatars to simulate real-life contingencies.

If you want to know the exact location of the site, please contact me.

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UPDATE: Thanks to Chris Paton, here is a video about the site:

Further reading:

Imperial College London in Second Life: Virtual Patients June 11, 2009

Posted by Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Video, Virtuality, Web 2.0.
1 comment so far

A few months ago, I wrote about the e-Learning Faculty of Imperial College London that created a spectacular and useful Second Life tool in medical education. Now they came up with something innovative again: a score system by which medical students can see what they are doing right or wrong while examining a virtual patient.

Further reading:

Second Life Participants: Unite! June 1, 2009

Posted by Bertalan Meskó in Second Life, Virtuality, Web 2.0.
1 comment so far

I’ve been involved in several Second Life projects in the last few years, and the only and biggest problems we had to face was the lack of participation. Now here is a huge project and the organizers are looking for participants. The organizers just published the best review ever of medical sites of Second Life. Please join! Details here.

FOCUS GROUP #1

We are recruiting parents in North America with children under the age of 18 to discuss their questions and concerns about childhood immunization.

FOCUS GROUP #2

We are recruiting North American natural/alternative health students, practitioners and professionals to understand their views on childhood immunization.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in participating, please contact me (Leslie Beard) at leslie.beard@utoronto.ca

Further reading:

NHS Conference in Second Life: June 12th May 28, 2009

Posted by Bertalan Meskó in Healthcare, Second Life.
1 comment so far

I’m very glad to see there are serious conferences focusing on health issues organized in the virtual realm of Second Life. One of the main questions it aims to answer is  ‘Can Obama fix the US health system?’

Imperial College London and the NHS Confederation would like to invite you to take part in an exclusive event that on previous occasions has been closed to members of the public – an opportunity to learn about and debate the most effective ways to achieve good local leadership in the National Health Service, and will provide a unique overview of the health service as a whole.

The Local Leadership: A National Service Conference has been organised by the NHS Confederation and will be broadcast to you live in SL directly from ACC in Liverpool on Friday the 12th of June starting at 9:30 UK Time (0100 SLT). Please arrive at 09.00 for a video and sound check.

Real Human Avatar in Second Life May 25, 2009

Posted by Bertalan Meskó in Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Virtuality, Web 2.0.
1 comment so far

I’ve been writing about the educational opportunities Second Life can provide for years. Even if it seems to be very useful in distant learning, it has some serious problems (e.g. technical ones). Now it’s time to have a real presence in the virtual world (hat tip: Malburns):

In my vision, there are virtual case presentations involving students and professors just like in the videos above.

There is also an interesting article published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research: A Survey of Health-Related Activities on Second Life. It’s a totally comprehensive guide to all the quality medical Second Life sites and projects. The Ann Myers Medical Center where I’ve been working in for 2 years is also mentioned:

The Ann Myers Medical Center, founded by Dr. Ann Buchanan in honor of her mother, Ann Myers, is run entirely by real-life nurses and physicians who donate their time. Much of the site is off limits to non-members. For its members, the site offers education through classrooms, resources, and simulations and is noted as being the first Second Life community to have adopted medical simulations in 2007.

Further reading:

Second Life News: Pedagogy and Virtual Worlds May 15, 2009

Posted by Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Web 2.0.
5 comments

DeeAnna Nagel and Kate Anthony are psychotherapists and founders of the Online Therapy Institute. The pair have only recently expanded their work to Second Life, but they have extensive experience in working with people therapeutically online. The pair now have a presence on Jokaydia in Second Life. I caught up with them to talk online counselling / therapy.

You can find many interesting and valuable articles focusing on how the virtual world could be used in education at Pedagogy and Virtual Worlds: Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

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