In the virtual world of Second Life, I am through my avatar, no longer Ruthann Russo, but rather Portia Komarov. Portia because it was a first name that I like and Kamarov because it was one of the last names available to be coupled with Portia from the Vast Second Life inventory of avatar names. In a few short days, I have visited the UN in New York City and been a patient at the Polyclinic Hospital in London among others, via teleport. Most recently, I have had a serene visit to the Sunshine Therapy Garden in Hawau where a relaxing guided meditation of the 7 chakras convinced me to stay (at least for now). If only I could figure out how to lay my avatar down.
There are many locations in Second Life that address the Doctor-Patient Relationship. I visited several during the past few days. Some of my biggest challenges initially were in how to travel around a location or an island. Once I discovered that I could fly, life in Second Life was much easier, and more fun, too! Here are a few of the places I visited:
Health Information Island: This is a huge island that contains several different expos that address topics from issues in aging to eye health. In addition, I spent some time in Miss Daisy’s reading room, which contained many different resources. I was surprised that with the large amount of resources and fun designs to explore in this location, I did not run into another Avatar during my entire trip!
Second Health Hospital’s Polyclinic: I visited this hospital clinic where a lovely gentleman explained the admissions procedures to me. The entire experience was quite customer friendly. Once I found out that I was a cancer patient, I made a beeline for the doorway – not quite ready to play that role, even as an Avatar just yet.
Geronotology Education Island: On this island, I encountered or IM’d with many different “bots” each of whom was programmed to provide me with different information. For example, one bot had all of the answers to government related questions, another had information about specific research projects, etc. At least this location had a good number of bots and Avatars….though I was surprised since this is not likely representative of the interests of the current population of Avatars?
The interactive clinical environments in Second Life seem limitless. Most large academic medical centers throughout the world appear to have some interactive clinical environment representation in Second Life. In all of these locations, there is an emphasis on how to improve service to the customer. I even visited one site that provided specific instruction to employees on how to provide informed consent to patients with learning disabilities. While there are sites that are more future oriented, many address real-time practicalities designed to improve practitioner-patient relationships today.
In addition to my visits throughout Second Life, I also found the following article about Second Life quite interesting, Towards a Virtual Doctor-Patient Relationship: Understanding virtual patients, by Vanessa G. González in the Journal of Virtual Worlds. In particular, I found the following quote by the author to be of great interest: “While the potential seems great, in practice, there are significant limitations in using virtual online communities to deliver health information. First, for many residents, these virtual worlds are fantasy spaces where they can escape the limitations of their bodies to engage in social interactions. Second, virtual worlds lack the cues that usually signal medical authority, making virtual residents skeptical about health information and advice obtained in Second Life.” Although I agree with Vanessa, I also agree that this is indeed a second life for all of us with limitless possibilities for the future of healthcare.
No comments:
Post a Comment