Real challenges in virtual worlds

Abstract

Lord Darzi stirred the imaginations of NHS managers and clinicians a decade ago when he introduced them to Second Health—a hospital in the alternate digital world, Second Life. With a personal avatar, participants could engage as staff, students or patients, playing his or her role among other residents (figure 1). It created an enticing prospect of a digital sandbox, where techniques could be practiced without real harm, where technologies could be perfected without real participants and where different ways of organising and delivering healthcare could be demonstrated without disrupting real systems. Figure 1 The trauma room in Second Hospital (D Cohen et al /Resuscitation 84 (2013) 78–84). A decade later, how far towards this vision have we progressed? Of course, computing power, analytic capability and model sophistication have continued their inexorable progression. Augmented and virtual reality systems have moved from tech labs to the consumer market. Simulations have become more realistic and more fantastic. And many of us worry more about whether our children can tell the difference between real and virtual worlds. Yet despite technological advances, and the long history of simulation, we still seem to be far from realising its full potential in health care. In my training …