How The Metaverse Could (Or Could Not) Transform Healthcare

If you’ve browsed the internet in the last couple of months, the term ‘metaverse’ is likely to have been thrown at you at least once. Facebook rebranded itself after the concept and other companies are adopting the metaverse with their own spin; betting heavily that it will be the next iteration of the internet where we will work and play alike.  

As healthcare increasingly incorporates an online segment in the digital health era, one cannot help but wonder how – or even if – this touted future of the internet will influence this sphere. As such, we decided to step into the metaverse and contemplate how it can factor in healthcare.

What is the metaverse?

This is a tricky question as there is not a general consensus on the definition of metaverse. Microsoft calls it “a persistent digital world that is inhabited by digital twins of people, places and things”; while Mark Zuckerberg says that in the metaverse, “you’ll be able to do almost anything you can imagine”.

The term ‘metaverse’ itself isn’t totally new. It was first coined by author Neal Stephenson in his classic sci-fi book Snow Crash published in 1992. In it, the Metaverse represents a virtual reality (VR)-based successor to the internet which is populated by users’ virtual avatars. There have been other depictions of such an internet successor such as the OASIS in Ready Player One; but they are similar in that they represent a new, more interactive way for people to interact online in a thriving, VR-enabled virtual world with its own economy and communities.

Some would argue that metaverses have been around for decades if one is to go by the virtual world concept. Second Life, launched in 2003, is an example; while others like Roblox and Fortnite are often considered as “proto-metaverses”. But the main idea that Big Tech is pushing forward is extending activities that we are already performing in real life to the digital one more seamlessly, where franchises from Marvel to The Lord of the Rings intermingle and where people smoothly go to work and entertain themselves.