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Cheryl LaGuardia

Going to the Doctor in Second Life?
May 12, 2008

An article in Saturday’s Guardian reports that “Spanish health authorities launched a virtual portal through the Second Life website yesterday designed to help young people too embarrassed to speak to a doctor about sexually transmitted disease or a drug problem.” A doctor visiting patients in a hospital, from a 1682 German engraving According to the article, “Real doctors will log on and offer advice to their anonymous patients. What both will see is an image of a consulting room with a doctor and a typical patient.”

Now that’s an interesting implementation of Second Life: given the anonymity it affords, this kind of interaction certainly seems like a relatively “safe” space for those who would be uncomfortable with a face-to-face question and answer session. On the other hand, I don’t think the technology in Second Life is yet sufficiently sophisticated to provide treatment, so I’m wondering how the questioner’s real life shyness is going to be overcome enough for them to get physical help if they need it.

It will be interesting to hear how this experiment works out; according to the Guardian article, the Spanish Society for Family and Community Medicine (FYC, one of the groups who set up the portal) “plans to open other Second Life portals for chronic conditions in six months.” The FYC president notes: “"Even though a virtual consultation can never substitute for a real face-to-face one, we will be able to deal with problems of dermatology and psychology through a webcam."” (For an image of the virtual consulting room and a detailed article (in Spanish) go to the Spanish Society for Family and Community Medicine site.)

I wonder if it’s possible to “buy” diseases online for an avatar…? Hmmm.

More as it happens in one life or another,
Cheryl

Posted by Cheryl LaGuardia on May 12, 2008 | Comments (1)

May 12, 2008
In response to: Going to the Doctor in Second Life?
Carrie Kent commented:

Oh my. Where is SL going?? Well, you can buy a pregnancy attachment and a labor animation, drunkeness, a drug high... Or, you can buy anything from an MRI machine to a hospital or a morgue. Even a "lying still in the coffin" animation. But oddly, you cannot buy diseases in Second Life. On the other hand, my library entrepreneurs, with a little knowledge of textures and clothing design, an acne tatoo would not be far off. And interested in creating animations? how about an OCD handwashing animation. We could make our second lives as distressing as our first lives if we worked at it.