Healthcare Revolution Lurks in the Metaverse

 (Photo by Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

From the Mail and Guardian in S.A. comes an article suggesting that while slow to adopt, eventually the metaverse will increasingly be used to see patients remotely and beyond borders.

TL;DR

  • Real-world fashion brands are turning out to be early pioneers in the metaverse.
  • Gucci carved itself out a hipster territory by buying virtual property on the Ethereum blockchain.
  • However, healthcare services in the metaverse will take this to new heights.
  • As the metaverse experience becomes normalised for ordinary people, its potential to transform telehealth becomes massive.
  • It is likely that the democratisation of metaverse healthcare won’t happen by default; it will require the intentions and the investments of a government and all their countrywide healthcare stakeholders, as well as a population willing and able to explore and inhabit a new frontier.
  • Initially, metaverse medical services will be seen as a second option to physical consultations, but as with video telehealth today, popularity will increase over time as the convenience and cost benefits are unlocked by consumers, service providers and funders.

Potentially huge breakthrough in MS Treatment that may “reverse” illness.

Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that attacks the myelin sheath that protect the central nervous system (CNS). It affects approximately 3 million people worldwide. The disease often progresses until the patient loses mobility, or worse. And there is no cure; only disease modifying drugs with spotty efficacy. I know. I count myself among those 3 million.

But good news emerged this week from an initial study of a new immunotherapy that targets cells infected with Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV). Not only does the therapy appear to halt progression of an illness that–to date–was unstoppable. In some cases, it actually reversed progression. That’s huge for people who have already progressed to debilitating symptoms.

Of course, this is early days, and MS sufferers have had hopes raised before, but it is potentially a turning point in the fight against MS.

Fingers Crossed.


The results of the trial were presented by Atara Biotherapeutics at an EBV and MS day on March 22, 2002.

https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/ms-symptoms-may-have-been-reversed-in-immunotherapy-breakthrough/