The skeptics of the metaverse doubt this virtual world because it can only be used by a very small niche in the market. However, at an industrial level, it is finding more applications and the health sector can help improve the training processes for specialists and surgeries.
“Technology and digital solutions are key tools for the health sector and the surgical field because they allow us to build a health system where patients are the center,” says Laura Ortiz, Manager of Professional Education for Johnson & Johnson MedTech Mexico.
For this reason, the metaverse is an environment conducive to improving the quality of surgical procedures, the specialist points out, since it provides tools to enhance students’ knowledge, in addition to allowing them to practice in virtual simulations.
Another characteristic that Ortiz highlights is that it simplifies access to surgical instruments that in some states of the republic are complex to carry due to geographic or economic issues and thus make medical training in Mexico more equitable.
“The future is innovation in the educational and surgical field to raise the level of hospital innovations. (…) We seek to establish connections between science and technology to combine surgical ideas with great technological proposals that help us offer more options for the patient”, he mentions.
According to data from the research firm Brandessence, the use of the metaverse in the health market is expected to reach a value of 7,453 million dollars and in this period the innovations of Augmented Reality, Virtual and Artificial Intelligence will be the main representatives. .
From telemedicine to the health metaverse
If during the pandemic technology helped to make medical appointments remotely and avoid the risk of contagion, in the future, the metaverse will complement consultations until reaching medical care 4.0, mention the specialists of the research firm.
At Johnson & Johnson, Ortiz points out, they are already making use of some digital tools related to the metaverse. One of them, for example, has the objective of reducing the level of variability between one surgery and another. It also provides guidance on what doctors are going to use or possible complications during the process to anticipate the situation.
“The more successful and fewer complications a surgery has, the easier the patient’s recovery is and therefore, the costs associated with recovery will decrease,” he highlights and adds that, in the same way, they track data to analyze surgeries. and improve the performance of specialists.
These digital possibilities also allow professionals to perform surgeries in the metaverse on virtual patients, with the aim of refining their technique and making the learning curve more efficient in terms of time and costs.
Fearing that technology will make the work of surgeons and doctors obsolete, Johnson & Johnson affirms that this will not happen. Rather, technology will become an ally of medical transformation.
“The entire digital wave is transforming the way health services are provided in the country. It is helping to have a higher quality in it and that this is reflected in recovery times through less invasive procedures”, concludes the expert.
