Medicine in the Virtual World: Molecules and Training April 19, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Education, Health, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Virtuality, Web 2.0.6 comments
- If you are looking for healthcare support groups in Second Life, click here.
- Learning in a Virtual World: Experience With Using Second Life for Medical Education: Most comprehensive overview ever.
- Molecular visualisation (Metaverse Journal)
- One of the best blogs about information dedicated to virtual worlds: john-norris.net
- Medical Training in Second Life (Wall Street Journal)
2010 Spring Semester Week 6: Virtual Reality in Medicine April 6, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Medicine 2.0 Course, Second Life, Slideshow, Virtuality, Web 2.0, Webicina.4 comments
I launched the world’s first elective course at a medical university focusing on web 2.0 and medicine for medical students in 2008. This is the 4th semester and the 6th week was dedicated to virtual worlds in medicine and healthcare. Here is the outline of my presentations.
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?
Take-home message: great opportunities for patients and medical professionals as well.
Second slideshow:
- 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.
Cancer Outreach And Support In Second Life March 25, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Second Life, Slideshow, Virtuality, Web 2.0, Webicina.1 comment so far
Here is a great slideshow about how cancer outreach and support work in the virtual world of Second Life.
More examples on Webicina.com.
Also e-guide about virtual worlds in medicine.
Life 2.0: Documentary about Second Life March 23, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Art, Second Life, Video, Virtuality.2 comments
I’ve been using the virtual environment of Second Life and Visuland for years now to organize conferences or just small meetings. I also published a whole e-guide focusing on this issue. But this documentary recently selected for Sundance Film Festival is something really unique. The director and creator is Jason Spingarn-Koff.
This feature-length documentary follows a group of people whose lives are dramatically transformed by the virtual world Second Life. They enter a new reality, whose inhabitants assume alternate personas in the form of avatars. The film is foremost an intimate, character-based drama about people who look to a virtual world in search of something they are missing in their real lives.
A young woman in Detroit becomes a star designer of virtual clothes and houses; an American and a Canadian fall in love online then struggle to build a real life together; a man creates the avatar of an 11-year-old girl who he believes is an expression of his subconscious.
The results are unexpected and often disturbing: reshaping relationships, identities, and ultimately the very notion of reality.
FDA in Social Media: Second Life Event February 28, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Conference, FDA, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Web 2.0.4 comments
You have probably heard about the Food and Drug Administration Social Media Hearing that took place last November focusing on how FDA-regulated products should use internet and social media for health-related communications. It also has an own, properly designed, online presence including Twitter streams and partners.
A week ago, I had a chance to attend a lively discussion focusing on this issue in the virtual realm of Second Life moderated by Patricia F. Anderson. I’ve seen numerous conferences in Second Life and this one was again a nice example that virtual environment is still useful when people from around the world would like to gather around and watch a presentation, then discuss it.
Best Virtual World Ever: Innovation in Organizing Meetings December 20, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Visualization, Visuland, Web 2.0.7 comments
I’ve been organizing scientific events and medical conferences in the virtual realm of Second Life for years. Though it has some serious limitations.
- If you don’t have IT experience, it will be quite hard to download and install it.
- Costs a lot if you want to upload content.
- Creating slideshows is a complicated and long process.
In the last couple of months, I’ve been a consultant for a Hungarian team that developed Visuland which should be a perfect alternative for Second Life:
- Takes about 20-30 seconds to enter: You come up with the idea to organize an event and send the specific links to the potential attendants. They click on the link and get into your conference room in 20-30 seconds.
- No need of installation and registration
- Real-time voice communication
- Real time video-streaming on virtual screens (you can stream your presentation plus your face via webcam at the same time)
- Efficient presentation tool -> conferences, workshops, meetings
- Editable posters and textures -> personalized rooms, advertisements
- Any website, blog, forum can easily create its own virtual place
- Public and private chat, transcript can be saved
- Zero cost for not commercial users
Take a look at it yourself and see how fast you can enter Visuland. It has one major limitation, it only runs on Windows but will run on Macintosh as well in a few months.
Virtual Reality: Establishing Medical Hallmarks November 15, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Second Life, Technology, Virtuality.add a comment
Mauroof Ibrahim, an Animation degree student in LimKokWing University of Creative Technology, Malaysia did an interview with me for a research project “Virtual Reality: Establishing Medical Hallmarks”. I asked him to publish the comprehensive results in a well-structured form on Scribd. Enjoy:
Virtual Worlds in Medicine and Healthcare November 1, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Medicine 2.0 Course, Second Life, Slideshow, Virtuality, Web 2.0.7 comments
I just published a summary about the last week of my “Medicine and Web 2.0” university credit course. This time I focused on how virtual worlds can be used in medicine and healthcare.
I also have a detailed guide dedicated to this topic on Webicina.
And I have recently had a virtual presentation for a course of the Nova Southeastern University (including audiocast):
Second Life News: Midwifery and Molecules October 26, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Video, Web 2.0.add a comment
Mary Anne Clark describes the organization and uses of Genome Island, a virtual laboratory complex constructed in Second Life. Genome Island was created for teaching genetics to university undergraduates but also provides a public space where anyone interested in genetics can spend a few minutes, or a few hours, interacting with genetic objects—from simple experiments with peas to the organization of whole genomes.
I’m not against virtual environments – it’s SL I have a problem with. There are many potential applications, the ones that particularly attract me being travel replacement and carbon footprint reduction. However, I don’t feel that virtual environments are good conferencing tools – I don’t need a 3D representation and the lighter touch of tools such as Eluminate and Skype are much more appropriate for this application.
As some readers probably already know, I received a request from Linden Lab on Wednesday in relation to the Second Life in Education Wiki requesting ‘not to use our trademark “Second Life” in your name or website name and not to use “SLeducation” in text or in your domain name…’ and to ‘..make the changes to your website name and domain name as soon as possible and let us know when you expect to have this done…’.
