Metaverse: the future of medicine in a virtual world

Abstract

The metaverse is a virtual space that uses Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capable of recreating a world parallel to reality. In health sciences, the use of technologies in the last decade has increased dramatically, and the benefits for patients and professionals are countless. After the implementation of the quarantine by COVID-19, social isolation led to the emergence of new tools that made the health sciences interfere even more in this digital world. The applications of the metaverse in medicine range from data processing and environment simulation for the exchange between groups of patients to the simulation of surgical means, diagnostic and experimental processes, and the simulation of avatars of doctors or nurses capable of advising patients according to their clinical conditions.