Association Development Plan

With the emergence and continuous improvement of the metaverse platform, we are able to apply mixed reality technology to bring the virtual world into the real world for interaction, in order to solve clinical and major health problems that need urgent attention across all time and space (Figure 4). Although it is currently mainly in the research stage, it will comprehensively change the medical education and research of clinical practice, and meet the needs of major health initiatives, thereby facilitating the implementation and completion of the Healthy China 2030 plan.

(1) Changing the efficiency of outpatient services: The metaverse medical platform can greatly improve the efficiency of outpatient services. In the future, most medical consultations will not need to take place in hospitals. Patients’ virtual avatars can appear in the metaverse medical clinic (referred to as the “met” clinic) of the metaverse hospital (referred to as the “met” hospital), completing queuing, registration, and consultations on behalf of patients. The doctor will interact with the patient’s avatar for diagnosis, and the doctor’s avatar can also be invited to the patient’s home for remote medical consultations. Of course, surgery still needs to be performed in hospitals.

(2) Significant improvement in service efficiency: When encountering difficult medical cases that require consultation with renowned experts, the avatar of a “met” famous doctor (i.e., the avatar of a renowned doctor in the metaverse hospital) can be invited to the local hospital. This eliminates the need for travel and ensures personal safety, while allowing the avatar to provide real-time consultations, examinations, and other services. By comprehensively sensing changes in the patient’s physiological status through advanced biological sensors, the metaverse medical platform (“met” medical platform) utilizes cloud computing and AI for deep mining, which assists the “met” famous doctor in guiding local physicians to adjust treatment plans and accelerate patients’ recovery (Figure 5).

(3) Achieving full coverage of remote medical services: The requirements for independent space, hardware and software equipment, and professional technical personnel currently needed for remote medicine will be reduced to only a pair of AR glasses linked to the Yuanmi platform, such as the BRM integrated machine, making it easy to achieve remote medical services anytime and anywhere.

(4) Improving the efficiency of emergency rescue: When emergency rescue is needed, the avatar of the “Yuan” famous doctor can accompany the emergency medical staff to participate in on-site treatment. Specialized “Yuan” famous doctors can also be invited to provide remote consultations and guidance on professional emergency medical work. This can allow for personalized, high-level treatment even in an ambulance, improving the success rate of rescue operations in special situations. The development of intelligent warning and intervention technologies for high-risk populations, joint treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and support for remote and mobile emergency rescue for major diseases will enable the application of technologies such as artificial intelligence, data mining, and virtual reality in the field of internet medical treatment, improving the ability of medical institutions to prevent and control major diseases and the level of emergency treatment (Figure 6).

(5) Achieving education or continuing education anytime and anywhere: For example, we can directly virtualize the sun in our metaverse, and students can directly see the sun while adjusting the distance to obtain different visual effects. This is especially suitable for medical education and research needs, as lectures can be held without the need for the professor to be physically present. Based on the needs of the metaverse, teaching can be conducted in several different classrooms across the country, or even globally, using avatars to teach and interact with students in real-time Q&A, accelerating the overall improvement of the education level in the medical industry (Figure 7).

(6) Improve the safety and efficiency of infectious disease prevention and control: nCapp, which is developed using the Internet of Things and digital medical technology for COVID-19, has been recommended by the American Thoracic Society (ATS). It can help doctors detect, diagnose, isolate, and treat respiratory viral infectious diseases early.

(7) Improve the efficiency of clinical research: Combining with digital twin technology can improve the efficiency and safety of clinical research, and achieve the vision of making mistakes on computer models instead of on humans.

The limitations of medical metaverse mainly lie in the fusion of human-machine and mixed reality technology. This is why we started the clinical verification of the medical metaverse prototype machine (BRM all-in-one) in 2018 (Figure 8), and it was not until recently that we officially proposed the concept of medical metaverse. In addition, this new concept requires new standards. With the progress of mixed reality and human-machine fusion technology, it can be integrated with digital twin technology and considered to build a new medical system with blockchain technology, and ultimately bring virtual world medicine into the real world for interaction. With the help of medical metaverse experts, high-quality services can be provided to more patients in medical metaverse hospitals and medical centers.

Although the metaverse is still subject to the laws of natural science, it allows users to engage in any experience or activity. Therefore, there have been many applications, such as virtual office platforms, virtual shopping malls, and video games in the commercial field, full-time and spatial displays in education, virtual house tours in the real estate field, and so on. Whatever is lacking in the real world can be supplemented by computer means in the virtual world. With the development of computer technology, the application scenarios of the metaverse are constantly expanding, and there is great potential for its application in medicine.