Medical and Health Care Simulations in Second Life.

Greetings!

Participating in virtual worlds like Second Life can be lots of fun; shopping, meeting new friends, shopping, attending live events, shopping, sailing, skiing (yes, really), oh and did I mention shopping (a girl needs a good wardrobe, even if it is a virtual one!). While all these activities may be fun, there are also many serious uses for virtual worlds.

Second Life, a popular virtual world, has attracted a large contingent of professionals who are conducting physical and mental health research and/or educational activities in the environment. Some of the more prominent include:

UC Davis Virtual Hallucination

One of the most widely publicised medical simulations is the UC Davis Virtual Hallucination simulation in Second Life. Since its launch in 2004, the simulation has been a ‘must-see’ in Second Life. The simulation was developed by Professor of Psychiatry Peter Yellowlees, and a group of colleagues from the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science in response to the frustration experienced by people with schizophrenia that can result from the inability of “therapists, family members and caregivers to fully understand their experiences, especially the auditory and visual hallucinations that often are symptoms of the disease” (1). You can see a short video of the simulation by clicking on the Avatar Project VodPod link to the right of this entry. The video is quite confronting and may leave you a little shaken.

Ann Myers Medical Centre

The Ann Myers Medical Centre simulation in Second Life has been developed to provide students with a hands-on, interactive environment where they could hone their skills as diagnosticians (2).

Second Health

The concept of a fully equipped hospital simulation was the vision of staff at the medical school at Imperial College in London with the National Physical Lab (NPL) in the UK as project manager. The simulation is an outstanding example of the ways these environments can be used to improve the skills of physicians and demonstrate cutting-edge medical facilities (3).

Virtual Neurological Education Centre

This simulation provides has been designed as a training and demonstration site featuring the virtual experience of a neurological disorder (4).
1. http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/welcome/features/20070404_virtual_psych/index.html
2. http://ammc.wordpress.com/2007/06/01/the-beginning/
3. http://virtualworlds.nmc.org/portfolio/second-health/
4. http://www.vnec.co.uk/VirtualWorld.html

More interesting Second Life health related sites:

Top 10 Virtual Medical Sites in Second Life –blog post
Health Info Island – blog post
Health groups in Second Life form coalition – news article

Next Week:

A closer look at how practitioners are using virtual environments in mental health fields