The Use of Second Life in Doctor-Patient Relationships

My experience with Second Life was very interesting. I found it difficult to navigate at first and a little intimidating because it seems like a dark video game. Even though I enjoy using electronics and can’t imagine life without my smart phone, I was never able to gain an appreciation for video games so this was a very foreign experience for me.

With that being said I tried to remain objective in my critique. After feeling lost and hopelessly inadequate in the world of Second Life, Bernadette Swanson aka HVX Silverstar graciously offered me one-on-one training. We spent 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon downloading Viewer 2 onto my laptop, going through the menus on the dashboard, and learning to move around with my Avatar. I found the welcome island to be sort of a sensory overload with so many Avatars moving around, talking, and the background noise. After adjusting my audio settings, this was not as much an issue. The visually intense environment requires a lot of computer power and memory. Adjusting my graphics settings required balancing performance against visual appeal.

As far as the doctor-patient relationship is concerned in Second Life, I believe that this virtual world has some technological hurdles to overcome in order to become user-friendly. I am somewhat technically savvy and found it hard to overcome the learning curve with the user interface in order to move around and gather information in-world. Children and young adults, who have grown up with video gaming and technology, may have an easier time navigating and find it comfortable to meet a healthcare provider in this virtual environment. Baby boomers and the elderly, who are the majority healthcare consumers, would be significantly challenged to overcome the learning curve and access the technology required. I believe that Facebook, Twitter, an IM chat, e-mail, PHRs, and Telehealth conferencing offer a much easier medium of on-line provider access for the general healthcare consumer.

I gained an enhanced appreciation for Second Life’s benefit to the medical field after teleporting to Davis Island. The training that can be offered to anyone anywhere in the world is invaluable to the advancement of medicine. The virtual Cal Expo Mass Prophylaxis Clinic simulated an actual setting for stockpiling pharmaceuticals and bioterrorism defense training. In 2008, Yellowlees, Cook, Marks, Wolfe, and Mangin concluded, “The use of internet-connected virtual environments holds promise for bioterrorism defense training” (p. 44). The virtual Palomar West Hospital is a showcase of the advanced technology innovations planned for the real world Palomar West Medical Campus in San Diego. Imperial College London created a virtual hospital that displays a series of documentaries that describe what the future of healthcare could look like. The eerie reality of the auditory and visual Virtual Hallucinations Project created by Dr. Peter Yellowlees and Dr. James Cook at UC Davis in 2006 aims to educate health providers and people in general about mental illness and schizophrenia. Healthinfo Island hosts a consumer health and medical library run by the National Library of Medicine’s Special Information Services.  Second Life offers a safe training environment for medical, nursing, and psychology students with use of virtual sims and role-play as well as opportunity for research collaboration worldwide. These are just a few options for teaching and learning offered in the vast virtual world of Second Life.

In conclusion, Second Life is a great tool for education and simulation activities. However, the high system requirements of the application, the need for a headset with microphone to communicate, and complexity of the user interface limit it as a resource that would be adopted by the general population as a healthcare access point.

Yellowlees P, Cook JN, Marks SL, Wolfe D, Mangin E. Can virtual reality be used to conduct mass proplylaxis clinical training? A pilot program. Biosecur Bioterror. 2008 Mar;6(1):36-44. PubMed PMID: 18386971

Robotics Suit Strengthens and Augments Human Movement

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20043544-247.html?tag=mncol;txt

Japanese company Cyberdyne introduced HAL-5 Exoskelton Robotics Suit at the International Forum on Cybernics in March. HAL-5 (Hybrid Assistive Limb prototype 5) is a wearable robotic suit that helps ordinary people accomplish extraordinary feats such as moving a paralyzed limb or lifting objects they otherwise couldn’t.

Cybernics is an emerging field that is described as the fusion of cybernetics, mechatronics, and informatics. The goal of cybernetics is to understand functions and processes that move from action to sensing to desired goal and again to action. Essentially how anything living or non-living processes information, reacts to information, and reaches desired goals. Mechatronics is the collaboration of multidisciplinary engineering fields in order to design and manufacture useful products. Informatics encompasses human-computer interaction, information science, and technology. The invention of HAL-5 also unites collaboration with the health care fields of neurology, behavioral science, physiology, and psychology.

HAL-5 is a robotic suit designed to support, strengthen, and augment human movement. The head mounted interface displays brain activity using colored lights. Prior to this innovation, brain activity could only be seen on a PC monitor. HAL-5 detects weak bioelectric signals passing from the brain to the musculoskeletal system on the surface of the skin then it instantly operates motors to move its joints in cooperation with the individual’s muscle movements. HAL-5 could be connected to interactive IT systems for enhanced monitoring and interface.

HAL-5 has the potential to help with the heavy duties required for aging factory and construction workers to supplement declining strength and mobility. This has far reaching significant benefits of keeping people productive and sustaining the problematic financial future of the social security system. HAL-5 would also benefit health care workers and caregivers with assistance moving and transferring weakened or immobile patients. There is great potential for paralyzed people to regain strength and mobility with rehabilitation assistance, and possibly those who are wheel-chair bound to regain kinetic mobility with the use of HAL-5.

The newest prototype is lighter than its predecessors (33 pounds in the lower-body suit and 55 in the all-body suit) and more efficient. Initial prototypes would have cost upwards of $50,000. Battery-powered suits for commercial use could initially cost between $14,000 and $19,000, indicating that the price is on its way down.

Cyberdyne plans to start clinical trials of the new robot suit in 2012. Future plans include developing special technologies to develop sensors for health management including observing human movement and behavior to monitor people’s safety in the home.