How will the metaverse affect the medical markets?

In our previous blog, we talked about Metaverse healthcare use cases. Let’s do a small quick recap:

• Virtual consultations: Medical professionals can use the Metaverse to conduct virtual consultations with patients, allowing for remote diagnosis and treatment. This can be especially useful for patients in remote or underserved areas.
• Medical training: Medical students and professionals can use the Metaverse to practice procedures and surgeries in a safe, virtual environment. This can help to improve their skills and knowledge before working with real patients.
• Rehabilitation and therapy: The Metaverse can be used to create virtual environments for patients undergoing rehabilitation or therapy. This can help to make the treatment process more engaging and interactive for patients, potentially leading to better outcomes.
• Medical research: Medical researchers can use the Metaverse to conduct virtual experiments and simulations, allowing them to test new treatments and drugs in a controlled environment.
• Medical Data management: The Metaverse can be used to create virtualized patient data management system. This can help to improve data security and accessibility, as well as facilitate collaboration between medical professionals.

However, it should be noted that the Metaverse is still an emerging technology, and its impact on the medical market is yet to be fully realized. It’s important that the use of the technology is governed by ethical and legal considerations.

Technologies involved in Metaverse healthcare

Mentioned below are some of the technologies used in the Metaverse:

Virtual Reality in Healthcare

The implementation of VR headsets is still under debate among a few people whether this technology will reach the nukes and corners of the people who actually need healthcare facilities. But one advantage of these headsets is their implementation in educational institutions and hospitals for training purposes. The below-given video gives you an overview of what a custom-developed VR in healthcare would look like.

A regional study predicts that North America will contribute the highest proportion of revenues during the forecast period. Due to the significant concentration of metaverse-focused businesses in the area, the quick development of healthcare infrastructure, and the incorporation of AR and VR platforms in the healthcare industry, will take place. Growth of funding for the creation of new and more inventive augmented reality products and applications and technological advancements in both software and hardware will be seen.

Game engines for building and rendering virtual environments

Unity and Unreal Engine are powerful game development platforms that can be used to create highly detailed and realistic 3D environments. These engines can be used to create virtual reality simulations of medical procedures, which can be used to train medical professionals or to help patients understand their conditions.

Some examples include:

C4X is using a tool called 4Sight, which is built on the Unreal Engine (a popular game engine used in many titles, such as Fortnite and Gears of War), to develop medicines in a virtual reality space. This allows their scientists to view molecular data in new and unique ways. Simon Jones, the director of Unreal Engine Enterprise, initially thought that C4X would use the Engine to design new laboratories like the pharmaceutical company Roche did. However, C4X had a different idea. They wanted to use the Engine to create a new method for designing pharmaceutical compounds. This was unexpected as C4X appeared to be a traditional medical company with chemists conducting research in a typical way.

Cloud computing for hosting and scaling the Metaverse

Cloud computing services, such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, provide a scalable and flexible infrastructure that can be used to host and run virtual reality simulations, 3D models, and other applications related to metaverse healthcare. These services can be used to provide the necessary computing power, storage, and networking resources to run these applications and ensure that they are available to users on demand.

NVIDIA: NVIDIA’s Clara platform provides a cloud-based infrastructure for creating and deploying medical imaging applications in the Metaverse.

AWS: Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a range of cloud-based services that can be used for metaverse healthcare, such as storage, computing, and machine learning services, which can be used to develop, deploy, and scale metaverse healthcare applications.

Blockchain for Metaverse healthcare

Though it’s not compulsory for a Metaverse to have Blockchain technology, it would be essential for the economics of the Metaverse. For example, in the healthcare sector, there would be a lot of data about the patient that had to be transferred from one Metaverse to another. Blockchain would offer such interoperability to make this happen.

A few Metaverses that use blockchain in their platform are mentioned below:

• Decentraland: This company is using the Ethereum blockchain to create a decentralized virtual world where users will be able to create, experience, and monetize content and applications.
• Somnium Space: This company is using blockchain technology to create a decentralized virtual world where users can buy, sell, and own virtual real estate.
• SomniTech: This company is using blockchain technology to create a decentralized virtual world for healthcare where users can share and monetize medical data and assets.

Artificial intelligence (AI) for Metaverse healthcare

One of the prominent use cases of AI in Metaverse healthcare is Chatbots. I am sure you definitely would have had a chat with a robot answering your question. In a metaverse, initially, for a healthcare company, it would be hard to deploy human resources for a receptionist because it would take a lot of time to train the person who’s going to take care of it.

Artificial intelligence can be utilized to make the Metaverse, a virtual world, more inclusive and user-friendly for everyone, including people with disabilities. AI can be used in various ways, such as creating natural language interfaces, speech recognition, computer vision, translation, and augmented reality. This will allow users to interact with the Metaverse in their native language and through images and videos, making the user experience more convenient. Digital avatars are another way AI can be used in the Metaverse.

For instance, AI can create realistic avatars for users by using Natural Language Processing, virtual reality, and computer vision. However, as the Metaverse is not yet fully developed, AI will continue to progress and bring new opportunities for collaboration with the Metaverse when it becomes available.

NFTs in Metaverse Healthcare

If you are an NFT enthusiast, you might have heard the news that NFT sales have declined. But the utility of NFTs isn’t gone down. There are still companies that use NFTs as a marketing tool.

Let’s see how they are being used in the healthcare sector.

Aimedis, a healthcare platform that uses blockchain technology, launched one of the first NFT marketplaces for scientific and medical data in 2021. They were also the first to create NFTs for cardiology patients that contain electrocardiogram (ECG) information, which was used to effectively treat patients in virtual environments.

Another example of how NFTs can be used in the Metaverse

When you decide to order a DNA testing kit from a private company to get a personalized nutrition plan, you are aware that the company might sell your genetic data to third parties for research purposes. However, you still choose to use the service because it is the most accurate way to get a personalized diet at an affordable price. But by selling your genetic data, the company could be making a lot of money without sharing any of it with you. Additionally, as the data is passed along the transaction chain, the risk of mishandling the information increases.

If your genetic data was minted as NFTs, the information would come with an inherent feature to be tracked. You would be able to see where it ends up and hold those who used it without your permission accountable since you are the sole owner of the data as certified by the NFT authentication. Furthermore, the NFT owner can enable a feature to earn money whenever a transaction occurs with the data.

Conclusion :

These technologies are constantly evolving, and new ones are being developed to enable more realistic and engaging metaverse experiences.

Overall, the Metaverse has the potential to revolutionize the way in which medical education, research, and services are provided, leading to improved patient outcomes and more efficient and cost-effective healthcare delivery. However, more research and development are needed to fully understand the potential and limitations of these technologies, as well as to address potential challenges such as data privacy and security, regulatory compliance, and ethical considerations.