The Healthcare Metaverse: Merging Technology With Medicine

Healthcare leaders need to understand how these innovations, including the new virtual reality known as the metaverse, can address the pain points for both customers and employees. In the second of this 2-part interview, we sat down with Bradley Schurman, Founder and CEO of The Super Age, and author of the book “The Super Age: Decoding Our Demographic Destiny” to explore the emerging trends in technology within healthcare. HT: There’s no doubt that we’ve made significant strides in technology in just the past two years, from rapid COVID tests to health tech to digital wearable devices. They’re taking this active control and management of their healthcare, which creates an entirely new consumer group. I can’t drive my car anymore, so I’m going to get a Porsche Macan.” I replied, “That doesn’t seem very safe.” And he responded back saying, “No, it’s actually one of the safest cars on the road.” They’re going to leverage every piece of technology, whether it be actual high tech, health tech, or scientific tech to get them to that place. All this technology breeds a person who is going to live for longer periods of time in good health. Collaborating between technology and healthcare HT: It is amazing how older generations are taking charge of their healthcare needs and using technology to accomplish it. The greatest point of innovation right now in healthcare is the home. For example, we can monitor our risk for falls, which costs on average $34,000 per person.1 Other systems can tell us if we might be suffering from some degree of dementia or Alzheimer’s.2 These preventative technologies not only are we taking away the burden from our healthcare system, but we’re also improving the quality of life for the individual.