Second Life offers opportunities for doctors and patients to interact in a novel way. Second Life expands upon the ability of providers and patients to talk to each other on line in formats such as chat and message boards.
Some of the advantages of Second Life are the virtual reality feel, the ability to meet from any location, the ability to use multimedia, and the ability to express emotion. Instant messaging or chat is two dimensional. Both parties know that they are simply sending text back and forth. It may not have the feel of being in the presence of someone else, and for some people, this may change their behaviour presentation. A doctor may choose an environment to soothe a patient - maybe the doctor and patient can meet on a quiet sunny beach, or in a grassy field, where natural noises such as the ocean or the wind can help lower stress in a patient. Despite being able to meet in such natural settings, both parties can access the meeting from where they are, with no need for the expense and inconvenience of physical travel. This is especially important in today's busy world, where many people work long or odd hours and may have difficulty finding time to go to a doctor's office. Second Life allows for use of multiple kinds of media, such as audio, allowing real time talking over the internet, video displays of either the doctor and patient or educational videos, and interactive simulations, which can be educational or may actually provide training exercises for the patient. A patient with a leg injury, for example, may be able to view a video, live action or simulated, of appropriate physical therapy exercises the doctor recommends for recovery. A virtual coach can be programmed to help keep the client on track. A patient can also do a walk through of proposed procedures, which can reduce stress on the actual procedure day. Second Life also allows for participants to express emotions via their avatars in pre-programmed ways. I think this is a unique advantage for people who may be uncomfortable expressing emotions or who suffer from autism-spectrum disorders. Someone like that who normally may be stoic in response to direction, questions or input from their provider may be able to be more expressive, showing excitement, fear, or distaste, allowing the provider to have a better understanding of how the patient feels about the diagnostic or treatment process.
There are some disadvantages to Second Life. First, the very heavily visual environment uses a lot of computer power and memory. My experience was that it could run slowly or be "bumpy". I ran into several instances where multimedia was extremely slow to load or unavailable, making the experience very frustrating. Secondly, Second Life has most advantages when used as a synchronous medium. For those of us that work graveyards, having to wake up in the middle of the day to meet with the doctor is a definite negative when it would be much better to carry on an asynchronous conversation via email. Third, a lot of the environment appears to take a great effort to program, potentially limiting how personalized it can be. I think that an IM chat, with links to video files on youtube or powerpoint files on a provider's website combined with emailed pdfs can provide much of the multimedia available in Second Life, and can be made more personalised. With the availability of Skype, video chat is possible, so doctors and patients can meet actually face to face. Fourth, Second Life has no particular privacy guards, creating worries about HIPAA compliance.
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