As the internet evolves, major industries are inclined to follow suit, innovating and changing their policies and tactics to meet the demands of new technologies. Now with the rapidly developing wave of virtual reality and the metaverse coming to the forefront of the business world, new tech innovations are pushing companies to reconsider the way they function. For healthcare and life sciences, many of these new technologies have the potential to bring real benefits to both patients and practitioners, as well as the medical facilities and research institutions, both public and private.
This is all part of a growing movement toward what tech and healthcare experts are calling the ‘third wave of telehealth’. The first and second waves of telehealth were motivated by the available technologies at the time. The first wave was limited to video chats and online communication. In contrast, the second wave was focused on connecting health applications to wearables and select medical equipment, largely in response to the pandemic.
Now, with the advent of this third iteration, experts are looking forward to new AI-driven technologies that could, for example, diagnose conditions earlier, better determine the health needs of specific populations, and enable stronger patient-doctor engagement.
International tech companies are working tirelessly with their clients to develop, implement, and monitor the real-world applications and results of these new third-wave technologies. Chander Damodaran, CTO of Brillio, works to develop many of these technologies and sees enormous potential benefits that could arise with the third wave of telehealth.
So, what would some of these technologies look like? Digital twins, for example, could serve to reduce risk during procedures and when prescribing medication. Using real-world patient data, these virtual simulations of real patients can mimic the outcomes of a particular course of treatment without any lasting consequences. For both practitioners and patients, this could be a game-changer that not only mitigates human-error-related scenarios but could also potentially save many lives.
Similarly, the metaverse could offer the opportunity for practitioners and researchers to have global access to their colleagues at all times. This could mean a greater level of knowledge spread to doctors in remote parts of the world, as well as the expansion on an international scale of life-saving practices that might otherwise not have been accessible. Even in developed countries, these technologies could help a doctor identify strange symptoms or illnesses remotely, resulting in faster, more strategic care.
Of these developments, Damodaran says, “technologies like digital twins and the metaverse are game changers that bring connected and collaborative experiences for the medical fraternity.”
For more information about developing and implementing these new technologies, visit www.brillio.com.
