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Meta-healthcare and Public health: Opportunities and challenges in health, mental health and health promotion in the Metaverse era

Writers: Vassilis Bokolas, Raptis Athanasios, Theodoros Fouskas,  Xenios Polis, Greece
Department of Public Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of West Attica

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to unravel the multiple effects of the Metaverse on public health, mental health and health promotion. The study implements the tool of a scoping systematic literature review via scientific database PubMed, by combining topic-related keywords to identify research studies and case-studies or good-practices proposed. Through the articles included in the systematic review, it is evident that the use of the Metaverse in various healthcare fields is expanding rapidly.  

 Keywords: health; mental health; health promotion; Metaverse; public health, applications, education

1. Introduction

Winslow (1920) defined “Public health” as “the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, public and private organizations, communities and individuals”. Good health is prerequisite for individual and socioeconomic advancement. Health promotion is the process of enabling individuals to increase control over and improve their health. It refers to a variety of processes aimed at modifying social, economic and political conditions and settings via interventions, as well as addressing social determinants of health to favor its positive impact on individual and collective health (Ottawa Charter/WHO, 1986).

The term “Metaverse” appeared in Stevenson’s novel, “Snow Crash” (1992) in which the characters interact between them as avatars in a virtual world. It can be described as a verisimilitude virtual space where the users can implement actions they perform in their real-life e.g., like shopping, playing, having fun or socializing. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated innovations of digital space including e.g., tele-working, distance educational activities, telehealth, online payments, distant monitoring, data-sharing along with the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and blockchain technology. Although, the Metaverse is in its embryonic stages, it is evolving at a steady pace. It includes improvements on surgical precision, educational activities of medical and nursing students, therapeutic usage for psychological and cognitive decline, musculoskeletal pathology and orthopedics, rehabilitation, chronic diseases, non-face-to-face healthcare, and others.

This paper presents an outline of the preliminary findings of a scoping systematic review of studies on the use of the Metaverse on health, mental health and health promotion.     

2. Methods, inclusion and exclusion criteria

Taking into consideration that there is a limited number of research studies on the issue, this article was based on a scoping systematic review (PCC) (Peters et al., 2015; Garavand & Aslani, 2022) with keywords “Metaverse” AND “health” in the scientific database PubMed in order to identify research studies and case-studies or good-practices proposed. The works that were included in the paper were research studies, case-studies or good-practices (not opinions, reviews, metanalyses) on the effects of the Metaverse on health. In the database of PubMed the following filters were applied: research studies with full-text that were published in English from 2007/1/1 to 2023/9/30.

3. Results

The studies emphasize the importance of the ocular care community embracing innovation and virtual healthcare technology (Tan, et al., 2022), the potential of the metaverse in medicine to address cognitive decline and mental health issues (Zhou, et al., 2022), and explore the integration of the metaverse into cardiovascular medicine (Skalidis, et al., 2022).

In other studies there is an emphasis on virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy in treating psychological disorders (Cerasa, et al., 2022), the use of the metaverse for medical education, such as with medical and nursing students (Gutiérrez-Cirlos, et al., 2023; Yang, et al.,2022), the implementation of a VR-assisted treadmill that can benefit stroke patients (Cho, et al., 2023), the merging of AI and blockchain for immersive doctor-patient interactions , diagnosis, treatment, and data security (Ali et al., 2023), neurosurgical uses of advanced technology, including robotics and artificial intelligence, in surgery (Fontanella, 2022).

Moreover, there are studies with recommendations regarding the integration of the metaverse into healthcare and the associated ethical, legal, and social challenges (Kostick-Quenet, et al., 2023), the focus on metaverse technology in clinical neurorehabilitation, the advancing VR-based treatments and various concepts (Calabrò, et al., 2022), potential applications and the impact of metaverse technologies in the fields of medicine, healthcare, and mental health (López-Ojeda et al., 2023). Moreover, studies show the benefits of using the Metaverse and virtual reality technologies to improve the mental health of heart failure patients (Skalidis et al., 2023), technologies like 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and metaverse applications that are transforming medical education and healthcare (López-Ojeda et al., 2023), the immersive technologies such as VR HMD and AR glasses, with potential implications for eye health and comfort (Kim et al., 2022), the reduction of anxiety and stress and potential success of surgical telementoring and the noninvasive localization of impalpable tumors (Orr, et al., 2023).

Also, there are studies focusing on the increasing importance of integrating advanced technologies like AI and other immersive tools into cytopathology (Giarnieri, et al, 2023), the use of virtual reality in the metaverse for exercise therapy as both safe and effective in reducing disability (Orr, et al., 2023), campaigns for early-onset colorectal cancer awareness (Lee, et al., 2023), devices for measuring body curvature and skin wave fluctuations (Hong, et al., 2022), improvements in depression and anxiety symptoms over multiple sessions of Cognitive Behavioral Immersion (Ezawa, et al., 2023), and the adoption of VR in telerehabilitation (Chan, et al., 2023).

4. Conclusions 

The Metaverse boosts the capabilities of health professionals in a digital-healthcare world. The structure and technologies of the Metaverse for health, mental health and health promotion can be used to implement health interventions. The Metaverse has unlimited implementations e.g., improving telemedicine and visits, offering faster and interconnected digital medical data access, treatment of phobias, therapeutic pathways, reducing the negative mental health effects, offering drug-free alternatives via virtual reality, reducing post-operative pain, making childbirth or post-operation procedures less painful.

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