Web me - putting the me in metaverse

The internet is being reimagined, and healthcare enterprises need to be ready for what comes next. Metaverse and Web3 innovations are transforming the underpinning and operation of the virtual world. Instead of the internet as a disparate collection of sites and apps, the metaverse is a 3D environment in which moving from work to a social platform can be as seamless as walking from one’s car right into the doctor’s office.

Internet of place – A new experience layer
Although the metaverse offers an exciting new world to explore, it’s not just a place for gaming or entertainment. More than 80% of healthcare leaders see the metaverse having a positive impact on the future. In the metaverse, we can transcend time and space to simulate interactions, shorten learning cycles and practice procedures, such as in surgical training. We can create distinct experiences for patients that replicate the physical world but remove its constraints. We can help healthcare employees build empathy around the human experience of people aging or of people with historically underserved needs by virtually living in other people’s shoes.²

Internet of ownership – A new distributed data layer
Underpinning this new experience layer is a new distributed data layer. Web3 provides additional texture to this new world by introducing a data framework that generates provenance, veracity and value. By creating a new distributed layer to the internet, individual users have a more intelligent and connected web experience where they can share digital assets, and trade or sell their data based on clear ownership rights and authenticity. The underlying data framework is what supports a range of capabilities from “owning” a pair of digital shoes to authenticating identity and more, while remaining secure.

Building a responsible metaverse
Interestingly, while the metaverse can re-represent the existing world, we are still the same people living in it. Those who cannot see, cannot see. Those who cannot hear, cannot hear. Those who do not have digital health access today may experience a widening gap. The exciting part of this new realm is that we can set up new guardrails that are impossible in the physical world. Bottom line: The metaverse needs to be accessible for all kinds of people, regardless of their sensing capabilities, access to technology and beyond.

We can think about these evolutions as taking place on two fronts: The metaverse as a re-platforming of digital experiences to provide boundless places where people can meet and interact and Web3 as reinventing how data can be owned by individuals and moves through that system. For healthcare executives hoping to join the ranks of those that shape the next internet revolution, it starts with taking steps to understand these evolutions.

The greatest value of both metaverse and Web3 in healthcare will depend on the ways in which the two converge with one another. These combined forces have the power to eliminate the distrust, friction and fragmentation patients and healthcare workers experience as they cross platforms, care settings and work environments. The virtual care and office experiences that we’ve seen accelerate over the past two years can become more “real.” But healthcare, perhaps more than any other industry, needs an underlying data foundation that guarantees trust, safety and optionality for all involved.

The metaverse presents a variety of potential challenges—from providing equitable access to technology to keeping patient data secure to ensuring the safety of patients as they explore care in new realms on their own terms and on their own time. As we enter this new era, it will be critical to have the right governance in place to ensure that enthusiasm for the potential on the horizon should not come at the expense of caution and care for the human at the center of the experience.

Applying new thinking in the metaverse must include tackling top health equity priorities such as reducing health outcome disparities among patient populations, understanding social determinants of health, and improving the attitude, behavior, biases and approach of providers and support staff.

These are areas that healthcare leaders should focus on to be ready: