The medical community is trying to find real-life benefits from the virtual reality of Second Life

Parallel universe: Entering an online 3-D world
The medical community is trying to find real-life benefits from the virtual reality of Second Life.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. Sept. 8, 2008.

In Second Life, a computer world where just about anything goes, several physicians and health care professionals are finding that “anything” can include work that makes real life easier for themselves, their colleagues and their patients.

But in a world void of the laws and protections governing real-life medical professionals, taking advantage of the opportunities a virtual world offers comes with risks.

“There’s more to it than ‘Hey, this is a very cool application,’ ” said Maurice Ramirez, DO, PhD, president and founder of the Orlando, Fla., consulting firm High Alert. “Done right, this could solve a myriad of problems. Done wrong, it is a security nightmare to not only patients but to doctors.”

Reporter Pamela Lewis Dolan crossed between real life and virtual life for this story on the medical-related activity in the online 3-D world inhabited by millions since San Francisco-based Linden Lab launched Second Life in 2003 (www.secondlife.com).

Passages in italics indicate Dolan is navigating Second Life as Annastasia Blaisdale, her avatar, or online character. Straight type represents Dolan writing as herself. In both worlds, everyone to whom Dolan — or Blaisdale — spoke was aware of her real name and her status as an AMNews staff reporter.

Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers, here:

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/09/08/bisa0908.htm

Annual Visual Web Convention Leading the Thinking and Debate, London 9-10th 2008

**Visual Web**
Annual Visual Web Convention Leading the Thinking and Debate, London 9-10th 2008
**Visual Web**
(This is a RL conference, and will not be screened in SL)

THE EVENTS

The Visual Web Convention brings together 4 conferences all addressing the next-gen Web across virtual worlds, MMOs, casual games, web 2.0 & casual MMOs. You can book day passes or access-all-areas AAA VIP passes AND individual event passes on this site.

CONVENTION SCHEDULE AT-A-GLANCE

• Registration opens from 9.45am both days


• The convention opens at 9.45am and closes at 5.30pm both days


• The free-to-access small expo and extra sessions are only available to conference delegates on the day of their pass.


• You must have a minimum of a conference pass valid for the day to enter the Convention.


• All conferences start at 10.30am sharp and close at 5pm


• The Legal Clinic is just £39 + vat and has limited availability.


• The Clinic, IP Pitching and Future Technologies Panel Sessions must be booked in advance to guarantee your place.


• All sessions are on a first-come, first-served basis.

9th July

• Academic Meets Industry Summit


• Monetise Web 2.0 & Social Networks Conference


• Additional sessions, including:


• IP Pitching


• Future Games Technologies Panel

10th July

• Apply Serious Games Conference


• Apply Virtual Worlds & MMOs Conference


• Small expo and extra sessions, including:


• Virtual Worlds & Serious Games Legal Clinic


• Industry Consultations

There are additional FREE sessions to delegate pass-holders with passes valid on the day.

http://www.viswebconvention.com/pages/schedule.htm

• Booking : can be made here code on registering (with PayPal button through EventBrite) is HEALTHCARE


• Full details are at the official website: www.applyseriousgames.com

Nursing Simulation (NESIM ) and GeoGlobe HealthGeographic

You can find Panels with Teleports of Both at

Maps for Health Mappe per la Salute

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Marebbe/166/18/751

NESIM Nursing Simulation

posted by Topher Zwiers on Cousins Pau
10 weeks, 1 day, 18 hours, 32 minutes, 30 seconds ago

http://bloghud.com/id/15851/

I'm attending a SL Community College group meeting. The focus of the meeting is a demonstration of the NESIM nursing education simulation. There's a group of about 10-15 folks; we all teleported to NEWG for a demonstration by JS Vavoom. He teaches Nurs Emergency Room Simulator is based on industry standard simulations: METI and Laerdal. Jon indicates that it's a few hours of learning curve for SL engagement. Orientation of 54 learners to Second Life was a challenge. Interesting thing - they've "given Lindens to students" in addition to the orientation matierals. Once the patient lies on the table, the monitors turn on. Instructor and student have control over the system via the HUDs - patient/instructor and nurse/learner. With the patient on the table, Jon increased the oxygen via the tank. In this simulation, the patient reported and pointed to chest pains; as the instructor, Jon changed the heart rhythm, and as the student, he started an IV, administered a lidocaine in The simulation - patient responses to learner/nurse actions - is mostly controlled by the instructor; at some later point, there will be scenarios scripted with automated responses. With the two HUDs controlling the simulation, it becomes possible to hav NESIM.org website.
at: Cousins Pau (31, 24, 514)

GeoGlobe

One of the wonderful things about Second Life is that in many ways it works just like real life. Daden was working on the DataGlobe when its Second Life neighbour, Hayduke Ebisu (this is his Second Life name, and he is based in the USA), who is active in environmental issues in Second Life and real life, saw what the group was doing. He said that he had someone that Daden should meet. That person was Stephane Zugzwang (another Second Life name, and based in France). (Second Life is very much about social networking and collaboration [4]) Stephane had built a 'VR Room' in Second Life. This is similar to the 720 degree 'bubble photos' that are sometimes found on the Web, where one can pan and zoom in all directions. In the Second Life version, the photo is pasted onto the inside of a huge 20 m sphere, with the viewer's avatar standing inside and looking at the image all around her/him.We all saw the potential to combine DataGlobe and VR Rooms. The resulting system was christened GeoGlobe (Figure 10[26]). GeoGlobe again shares the same NewsGlobe engine; all that changes is the final display UI (user interface). When a feed is selected the "points" of the feed fly out from a generator at the centre of the hollow sphere and "stick" to the map on the sphere wall at their correct locations. GeoGlobe also allows users to display multiple datasets, each in a different colour.

Figure 10 GeoGlobe in Second Life.

GeoGlobe received extensive blog coverage and can be seen at [27]. The technology has since been used by the Swedish Embassy in Second Life to display locations of Swedish Embassies around the world. Readers interested in using GeoGlobe for their own data are invited to contact Corro Moseley in Second Life.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov

• International Journal of Health Geographics

Maps for Health Mappe per la Salute

Medicine Clinic Care Giving Non profit Health Mimir Italia Italy



http://slurl.com/secondlife/Marebbe/166/18/751

Medicina Neuroscienze Alzheimer MS Sclerosi Multipla Bambini Adulti Anziani Riabilitazione Medici Studenti Operatori Volontari

Medical Training in Second Life Attending medical school in virtual reality

Medical Training in Second Life

December 21, 2007

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

We’ve covered the growing health training focus in virtual worlds, particularly Second Life.

For the health professional who’s wondering about how medical training would work, there’s an excellent overview here.

As a health professional myself, I can see the benefits an immersive environment would bring. It won’t ever beat poring over a cadaver in real life but it’s going to be a greatly superior complement to real life training.

Update: the student version of the British Medical Journal is also running an article on medical training in Second Life

Written by Lowell Cremorne · Filed Under Health

http://www.metaversejournal.com/2007/12/21

Virtual doctors - medical training in Second Life

Written by Bertalan Meskó

Wednesday, 19 December 2007

http://juniordr.com/world

Attending medical school in virtual reality

Universities have been developing online learning facilities for doctors and medical students for many years. Now they are turning to the virtual world of Second Life, reports Daniel Stott

Intensive care unit in Second Life Not many lecturers would appreciate their students flying into lecture theatres dressed as cybergoths, but since September Coventry University has begun to encourage such behaviour. The university is pioneering a MSc course in clinical management that holds problem based learning groups for students in Second Life, an online virtual world. The course trains students in managing healthcare facilities and is the first healthcare course to use Second Life as a learning platform…There is some debate about whether spending money on virtual learning platforms is worthwhile, but some university marketing departments have already spotted the potential that having a virtual presence offers in terms of college branding and attracting future generations of computer literate and Second Life savvy students.

Hamish MacLeod, senior lecturer on the MSc in e-learning course at Edinburgh University explained, “I have had one or two inquiries about the masters course from prospective students who have made a point of visiting Holyrood Park [Edinburgh University’s Second Life campus] before getting in touch-a hint that Second Life can play a role in recruitment.”

How universities are using Second Life

The University of Nottingham is researching bullying. About 50 avatars have taken part in interviews monitored in Second Life by an occupational psychologist

The University of Plymouth and Thomas Jefferson University in the United States have developed a sex education zone featuring films about HIV and a stand with current sexual health news

Cornell University is conducting research into post-traumatic stress disorder, measuring the physiological responses of veterans of the Iraq war and previous Gulf war while participating in a virtual tour through a combat scenario

Imperial College, London, has a Second Life version of their real world Sir Alexander Fleming building, complete with teleport signs to the library and lecture theatres

Competing interests: None declared.

Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.

Daniel Stott, medical student and freelance journalist,St George’s Medical School, University of London Email: danielstott@hotmail.com

http://student.bmj.com/issues/07/12/news/431.php

The NHS Next Stage Review in Second Life

The NHS Next Stage Review in Second Life

England’s National Health Service (NHS) is under review: The ‘Our NHS our future’ review. The NHS is England’s publicly-funded healthcare system, providing the vast majority of healthcare in the UK, which is based on clinical need and not the ability to pay. The Review provides an opportunity to ensure that the future of the NHS is clinically led and can meet the challenges of delivering healthcare over the next decade.

As a key component of the Review, on the 21st of November there will be an International Clinical Summit on pathways to care, where 1500 invited clinicians and physicians will be meeting in real life in London. But you can follow the meeting in Second Life or via the webcast. In Second Life you will be able to register your own opinions and meet and chat with the speakers.

This SL event will mainly be of interest to healthcare professionals, both within the UK and internationally. At any one time, our Second Life auditorium can accommodate over 50 people. You can follow the Summit’s live webcast outside SL if we are over-subscribed. Text chat will be recorded, and we may record video and audio portions of the in-world event for later playback.

Dates and times
Greenwich Mean Time
21 November 2007, 14:20-18:45

The NHS Next Stage Review in Second Life

England’s National Health Service (NHS) is under review: The ‘Our NHS our future’ review. The NHS is England’s publicly-funded healthcare system, providing the vast majority of healthcare in the UK, which is based on clinical need and not the ability to pay. The Review provides an opportunity to ensure that the future of the NHS is clinically led and can meet the challenges of delivering healthcare over the next decade.

As a key component of the Review, on the 21st of November there will be an International Clinical Summit on pathways to care, where 1500 invited clinicians and physicians will be meeting in real life in London. But you can follow the meeting in Second Life or via the webcast. In Second Life you will be able to register your own opinions and meet and chat with the speakers.

This SL event will mainly be of interest to healthcare professionals, both within the UK and internationally. At any one time, our Second Life auditorium can accommodate over 50 people. You can follow the Summit’s live webcast outside SL if we are over-subscribed. Text chat will be recorded, and we may record video and audio portions of the in-world event for later playback.

Dates and times
Greenwich Mean Time
21 November 2007, 14:20-18:45

Second Life Time (GMT-8)
21 November 2007, 06:20-10:45

SLURL http://slurl.com/secondlife/National%20Health%20Service/129/121/26

Agenda
14.20-14.30 Welcome and opening the event (CMO)
Overview of SHA engagement events (David Nicholson)

14.30-14.45 Objectives of the NHS Next Stage Review

14.45-15.00 Setting the scene - how to move the needle on health and health outcomes

15.00-16.00 Speaker Session One: High quality care across a healthcare system
David Levine from Montreal
Jack Cochran from Kaiser
Table discussion & questions

16.00-16.30 Tea Break (break in webcast)

16.30-17.30 Speaker Session Two: Examples of integrated care systems from abroad
Dr Schwartz from Westchester
Prof Schulte from Polikum
Table discussion & questions

17.30-18.30 Speaker Session Three: Examples of integrated care systems from UK
Dr O’Kelly from Tiverton
Dr Ian Rutter from Bradford
Table discussion & questions

18.30-18.45 Wrap up

Webcast
If the event is oversubscribed, or you can’t access SL, you can view the live webcast at http://www.livegroup.co.uk/internationalclinicalsummit.

Weblink
For more information about the International Clinical Summit, including the agenda, visit http://www.livegroup.co.uk/internationalclinicalsummit

An overview of the potential of 3-D virtual worlds in medical and health education

Novembre 15th, 2007

Article title: Second Life: an overview of the potential of 3-D virtual worlds in medical and health education

Authors: Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Lee Hetherington & Steve Wheeler

Volume 24, Issue 4, Pages 233-245, Cover Date December 2007

Journal Name: Health Information and Libraries Journal

Click here to go to the abstract of this article in Blackwell Synergy:

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com

Abstract

This hybrid review-case study introduces three-dimensional (3-D) virtual worlds and their educational potential to medical/health librarians and educators. Second life (http://secondlife.com/) is perhaps the most popular virtual world platform in use today, with an emphasis on social interaction. We describe some medical and health education examples from Second Life, including Second Life Medical and Consumer Health Libraries (Healthinfo Island—funded by a grant from the US National Library of Medicine), and VNEC (Virtual Neurological Education Centre—developed at the University of Plymouth, UK), which we present as two detailed ‘case studies’. The pedagogical potentials of Second Life are then discussed, as well as some issues and challenges related to the use of virtual worlds. We have also compiled an up-to-date resource page (http://healthcybermap.org/sl.htm), with additional online material and pointers to support and extend this study.

A minor scandal in the science blogosphere

01:36:10 pm, Categories: Ethics and Science, Medicine, Public Policy, Chemistry, 698 words

Science Journal (Almost) Polices the Blogosphere

If you blinked at any point over the last few days, you may have missed a minor scandal in the science blogosphere, pertaining to fair use of information from a scientific journal.

http://blog.sciam.com