{"id":3042,"date":"2022-10-20T14:43:46","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T14:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/?p=3042"},"modified":"2022-10-20T14:43:46","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T14:43:46","slug":"global-the-uae-metaverse-healthcare-projects-pushing-medical-frontiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/global-the-uae-metaverse-healthcare-projects-pushing-medical-frontiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Global: The UAE Metaverse Healthcare Projects Pushing Medical Frontiers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-reader-unique-id=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"2\">As part of Dubai\u2019s ambition to become a global center for metaverse business and technology, the emirate recently inaugurated its first hospital in the metaverse built by the UAE-based healthcare provider Medcare.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"7\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"8\">The Metaverse healthcare facility mirrors Dubai\u2019s real-world Medcare Women &amp; Children Hospital and will be used in their medical tourism initiatives, giving potential patients an immersive experience of the hospital prior to visiting in person.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"9\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"10\">Announcing the launch, Dr. Shanila Laiju, CEO Medcare Hospitals and Medical Centers, said: \u201cOur ultimate aim is to deliver actual healthcare services by incorporating the delivery of real-time consultations through our team of over 400 medical experts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"11\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"12\">She added that they expect traditional telemedicine services to be replaced by a need for Metaverse interactions in the long run, enabling \u201cour patients to receive a more tangible and collaborative service.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"13\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"14\">Earlier this year, another UAE healthcare company, Thumbay Group, announced its own intentions to build a virtual hospital where doctors and patients can meet for remote consultations. Thumbay Group is also working with UAE-based Gulf Medical University to incorporate Virtual Reality (VR) into medical training.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"15\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"16\">While metaverse skeptics might argue that such initiatives are little more than telehealth with 3D glasses, another project unveiled at the Gitex 2022 conference in the Dubai World Trade Center earlier this month is proving that remote medical treatment can go beyond consultations to treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"21\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"22\">Currently in the clinical trial stage, a digital new eye test is being developed by the Indian HealthTech ShopDoc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"23\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"24\">While there have been other experiments with digital eye care, previous attempts assess the change in a patient\u2019s visual acuity over time by asking the customer to distinguish several letters and shapes in the range of their current prescription.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"25\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"26\">These new tests, however, use technology developed by the U.S. digital optometry specialist CLEAR to test a more comprehensive range of prescription factors including visual acuity, contrast, pupil size, accommodation, binocular balancing and more, which the company states are able to deliver clinically verified 20\/20 prescriptions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"27\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"28\">With plans to first roll out remote eye tests in India and the UAE, the technology will be available to users of the ShopDoc Metaverse platform. ShopDoc has already entered into agreements with over 100 eye clinics in the UAE as part of efforts to promote its metaverse digital eye test project.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 data-reader-unique-id=\"33\"><strong data-reader-unique-id=\"34\">Transforming Modern Surgery With VR\/AR<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"35\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"36\">Aside from the enhanced remote appointments made possible by VR, the technology has been used by surgeons to simulate operations. In fact, in life-or-death situations, getting in some virtual practice before can make all the difference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"37\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"38\">Earlier this year, surgeons separated two conjoined twins in Brazil after months of trialing the techniques using VR projections of the twins, based on Computed tomography (CT) and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"39\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"40\">With some members of the team based in London and others in Rio de Janeiro, for the first time, surgeons in separate countries wore headsets and operated in the same virtual theater in real-time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"41\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"42\">To bring this kind of cutting-edge technology to the UAE, Dubai\u2019s Abdul Latif Jameel Health has partnered with Japanese medical VR specialist Holoeyes in a project that will deploy detailed 3D VR models for training, education and analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"43\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"44\">In the related field of Augmented Reality (AR) assisted surgery, medical professionals in Abu Dhabi have been pioneering new surgical techniques using Microsoft\u2019s HoloLens AR headset.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"45\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"46\">The technology, which Dr. Rashed Al Shaeel of Burjeel Medical City <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenationalnews.com\/uae\/health\/uae-surgeons-slice-into-technology-in-latest-holographic-procedures-1.1160964\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-reader-unique-id=\"47\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"48\">compared<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"49\"> to \u201ca surgical sat-nav,\u201d provides real-time patient data to surgeons and shows them where to make incisions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"50\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\" data-reader-unique-id=\"51\">At the same time, colleagues can remotely monitor the operation through the headset\u2019s cameras, giving specialists anywhere in the world a live view of the patient.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of Dubai\u2019s ambition to become a global center for metaverse business and technology, the emirate recently inaugurated its first hospital in the metaverse built by the UAE-based healthcare&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[73,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/AC74E62E-258C-4762-AF6A-95EC7D88B0A2.jpeg?fit=739%2C415&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3045,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3042\/revisions\/3045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}