For those of you that do not know, Second Life is an online virtual reality environment. People go to www.secondlife.com, sign up to create an “avatar” and then enter an online virtual environment. Some people call Second Life a game, but that is really a misnomer. It is a game-like environment, but there is no game-like objective in Second Life. The objective, if you can call it that, is to simply interact with other people in this environment.
Many healthcare systems are experimenting with this relatively new environment (created in 2003) to see if it can help improve a patient’s ability to interact with their healthcare provider or healthcare system. The Palomar Medical Center recently created a copy of their planned hospital in Second Life before the real hospital was built. This gave prospective patients a chance to see what the hospital would look like before the doors actually opened up.
Do I see doctors and patients interacting in Second Life in the future? It is certainly a possibility. However, I do not envision doctors and patients simply interacting thru their avatars – I think that that is a bit too impersonal for the doctor-patient relationship. But I could see Second Life as a means of conducting video phone calls with one another. Before that can happen, however, video phone calls between doctors and patients have to become more common place in general. That particular change will likely take many years, but I am confident that it will happen at some point.
Where I see the most benefit is in education – both in educating medical professionals and patients. Second Life is a very powerful educational medium. The virtual reality environment allows for simulations that are simply impractical (or even impossible) to do in real life. Physical distance between participants is also rendered moot by this technology. This is probably the most common current use of Second Life in the healthcare field, and it is a trend that I think will continue for many years to come.
Do I see Kaiser using this technology in the future? Because Kaiser is so large, I am doubtful that Kaiser will use Second Life specifically. Kaiser tends to want to have greater control over the technology that it uses. However, there are some people in the Kaiser IT department that are looking at the possibility of having Kaiser create its own closed system virtual reality environment – perhaps something like “Kaiser Life”. Kaiser has always been a big proponent of using classes to teach patients how to manage their various conditions. Using a virtual reality environment will help Kaiser reach those patients who are either unwilling to simply too busy to attend a class in the real world.
