The health and care metaverse

In the future metaverse, the NHS could have a virtual workforce that is much larger than today’s real workforce, with virtual clinicians that can help to diagnose and treat patients on a routine basis. Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) headsets (collectively termed Extended Reality or XR) have the potential to deliver more effective mental health and physical therapies to more patients and more cost-effectively than conventional methods. Furthermore, immersive technologies can improve engagement, achieve better outcomes, and help patients to overcome anxiety and acute or chronic pain conditions. In addition, XR can be used in place of traditional training to reduce costs and improve practitioners’ procedural and soft skills.

This conference will explore current applications of immersive technologies to illustrate their potential impact across health and social care. VR and AR headsets will be used, as well as the conventional laptop, mobile devices and other biosensors, to cover the nature of virtual experiences.

We will review and showcase key application areas, including mental health and wellbeing, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, pain management, surgical preparation and planning, clinical skills training and patient education.

• The nature and value of immersive experiences delivered using conventional computer equipment, and the potential of gateway technologies such as virtual reality headsets and augmented reality glasses
• The nature and value of Extended Reality (XR) including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and the so-called Metaverse
• The current best practice and the range of validated applications of these technologies to health and social care