Second Life and the Doctor-Patient Relationship

  I had my first experience in Second Life Recently.    I had to go to www.secondlife.com  and go through the registration process.  It was fairly easy as I am already a computer user and I am familiar with the registration process on other websites.  I think this website is a great invention.  This is a great online tool that will be very helpful as more people become familiar with what it has to offer.  I like the fact that it can be accessed from anywhere and it is very interactive.  You can interact with people from all over the world.  Once it becomes more popular with Physicians it will be a useful tool for Physicians to interact with patients from all over the world in any type of environment that the physician can build.  They can do demos, simulations and provide credible links to patients that are available in their own personal island.    Having such flexibility allows for a more engaging environment.  It is a way to have a cost effective virtual education solution as stated on Secondlife.com.

There are some Pros and Cons with using Second Life.   First I will describe some Pros and then I will go into the Cons.  One of the Pros that I found was that you can build a simulation that allows patients to experience a situation that they would not normally be able to experience.  Doctors can bring together patients from all over the world for group sessions.  They can create a simulation of their office and give a patient a tour of their office to make them feel more comfortable before they have their initial consultation in the real life.  There really is no limit to what you can do in Second Life once you become proficient with all the tools the site has to offer.  Now for the first Con you have to have a fairly new computer with voice and speaker capability.  In order for the patient to communicate with the Physician in a session they have to be willing to purchase a headset with microphone.  There are a lot of not so friendly people/islands in Second Life so you have to be aware.    The patient has to be willing to be patient enough to view the tutorials to learn how to navigate within the site.    There are people out there in second life that can pose as a Physician and be deceiving so the patient has to be knowledgeable enough to research the Physician and make sure they are a trusted source.  Overall the Pros do outweigh the cons and I think it is a great environment for Education and Doctor-Patient Relationships.