Check out this brief macinima showing highlights of a recent tour I went on with Dr. Scott Diener’s in his Virtual Medical Centre. It is a painstakingly detailed build, with an impressive range of scripted elements that simulate real life medical procedures. During one part of the tour, Dr. Diener showed a photograph of the real-life facility he had replicated, which comes with a price tag of $2.5 million USD. After each virtual training session, he asks visitors to take a brief survey, comparing the effectiveness of the virtual medical centre, when compared with the real-life facility. So far,the virtual facility has been just as effective, but at a fraction of the cost.
I want to conclude this post with a quote from a recent post on Virtual World News about the a report published by the University of Toronto called “A Survey of Health-Related Activities on Second Life” where they explored the potential for health care and medical training and education in virtual worlds:
“As use of virtual spaces steadily increases among businesses, there is a similar increase in use among those in the health care field, say researchers at the University of Toronto. Looking solely at Second Life, researchers saw a wide array of health- and illness-related activities on the rise in the virtual world.
These activities include education; training programs for physicians, nurses and medical students; an increased presence of disease-specific support and discussion groups; and fundraisers that benefit medical research (with real-world dollars going into coffers).”
“Virtual worlds, like Second Life, offer unique didactic experiences to users seeking health information, skill building and health care training, group support, and, finally, individual consultation,” the study said. “
Do you have a project you’d like to share, or need help getting started with a new project? IM Keystone Bouchard in Second Life, or email info@archvirtual.com
