How to build a meta-hospital?

The Internet of Medical Things （IoMT） has given rise to a new medical paradigm: “Three links span all spatiotemporal dimensions, integrating four communities within. Quality control, preventive medicine, healthcare, and treatment together form a novel mode to benefit all human beings.” This paradigm facilitates medical alliances and hierarchical medical systems, enabling grass-roots doctors to better implement homogeneous healthcare practices with a strong foundation and extensive coverage, ultimately serving patients more effectively. However, in the real world, the implementation and advancement of this work still rely on experts’ promotion and implem entation. The most in-demand doctors have finite capacities, making it challenging to extend the influence of renowned physicians, serve patients on a larger scale, and benefit society more broadly. Now, with the development of the concept and related technology of metaverse, a new opportunity has arisen for the IoMT. This will help address the issue of limited capacity among top doctors by leveraging a virtual-real interaction platform and the eight major characteristics of the metaverse. Furthermore, it is possible to establish meta-hospitals thereby implementing a metaversal healthcare model that embodies “new opportunities in IoMT, direct encounters doctors in metaverse in medicine, quality control through virtual-real interaction, and unmatched integration of humans and machines.”By adopting a management model focused on “patient-centered care, emphasis on metaverse in medicine, specialized disease management, and quality assurance,” meta-hospitals can provide homogeneous healthcare that extends throughout and strengthens the primary care sector. Although there have been no recognized experiences with constructing metaverse hospitals so far, exploring and practicing this possibility while keeping in mind demand backgrounds, previous foundations, metaverse doctors, and management will undoubtedly serve as catalysts for further development. Constructing meta-hospitals contributes to the “Healthy China 2030” vision, adhering to its strategic theme of “building and sharing the health of all citizens.” 

Key Words: artificial intelligence; large model; metaverse in medicine; medical artificial intelligence