Medical meetings and conferences are an opportunity to share new knowledge, exchange ideas, and network with colleagues, not only locally but regionally, nationally, and internationally. Traditionally, these events have been held in person, necessitating significant financial expenditure for transportation and lodging for participants as well as time away from personal and other professional responsibilities. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, virtual meetings and conferences were uncommon. However, once the pandemic began and restrictions on travel and larger gatherings were in effect, video conferences became the norm to maintain the continuity of collaborative efforts while limiting the spread of COVID-19. However, compared to in-person meetings, video conferences came with a unique set of challenges, including video camera fatigue, lack of sustained engagement, concurrent multitasking, and loss of meaningful interaction with one another.

Moving Beyond Video Conferencing

To address some of these concerns, interest in other virtual platforms has been growing. Immersive technologies like the metaverse, a collective virtually constructed environment where individuals interact with other individuals as well as computer-generated surroundings, have garnered significant attention. In the metaverse, attendees can move through the virtual space with their personalized avatars to find others they wish to chat with, allowing spontaneous conversations that resemble interactions experienced during in-person meetings (Figure 1). Users can move and gesture via their avatars and can even convey emotions through facial expressions. In addition, spatialized sound allows individuals to identify who is talking, as the audio an individual hears comes from the direction of its speaker’s avatar. These features of the metaverse enable users to move from being passive listeners in a video conference to active participants who can engage in small group discussions naturally. 

Virtual spaces in the metaverse can also be tailored to meeting needs and can be designed as a meeting hall, boardroom, lecture hall, a virtual yacht or beach, and even on the moon. Customization of these spaces also allows sharing of brand identity, which fosters a feeling of belonging and community that often replicates the camaraderie enjoyed at in-person professional meetings. These features transform the metaverse experience into a more lifelike interaction, making it superior to video conferencing.

Improving on In-person Conferences and Video Conferencing Platforms With the Metaverse

Like video conferencing platforms, the metaverse offers an opportunity for education and the sharing of ideas and research, while reducing travel and venue costs and promoting global interaction. Such cost savings attracts much broader participation in retina conferences, particularly for ophthalmologists and retina specialists from resource-limited locations who may otherwise not be able to attend. Compared to more familiar video conferencing platforms, however, the metaverse offers several potential advantages, as well as specific challenges. 

Networking is an integral component of in-person medical conferences, and it has been difficult to reproduce such networking when using video conferencing platforms. In person, it can also be challenging to recognize attendees and speakers in large auditoriums with dim lighting. In the metaverse, networking mimics real-life interactions with helpful additional features. For example, in the metaverse, one can almost always see who is speaking with identification through their username. Networking in the metaverse is also enhanced by visual cues and customizable avatars that render the experience more dynamic. In this virtual environment, it is becoming easier to reproduce the spontaneity of personal interactions that occur during in-person educational events.  

Metaverse platforms offer other features that promote more real-life interactions that are not feasible when using familiar video conferencing software. In the metaverse, it is possible to write on virtual whiteboards, easily share educational 3D videos, incorporate instructive simulations and interactive training modules, and manipulate objects as can be done when in-person. This provides a more dynamic learning experience than offered through video conferencing. Moreover, it is possible to activate a real-time translation feature, which bridges language differences amongst attendees. Also, participants with disabilities may navigate the virtual metaverse more easily than they can in-person venues, thanks to select metaverse software. Altogether, meetings in the metaverse are more interactive than traditional video conferencing, which leads to increased engagement and participation, without the expense and time required for in-person events.

Another benefit of using the metaverse is the ability to access previous sessions in an immersive way. Participants can revisit past lectures and conferences and attend meetings that occurred in the past through 3D stereoscopic recordings. This feature obviates the limitations of clinical schedules, individual commitments, and time-zone differences and allows immersion in discussions that have already taken place, as if the participant was there when those discussions initially occurred. This temporal flexibility promotes continuous learning with exposure to nuances and insights that would otherwise be missed from a standard audio or video recording. This time-travel adds a convenient dimension to educational opportunities, supporting next-generation knowledge acquisition.

Limitations of the Metaverse

As immersive technologies are still in their infancy, there remain several limitations and challenges to keep in mind. As with any new technology, there is a learning curve. Onboarding and navigating metaverse platforms can initially be complex, especially for individuals unfamiliar with 3D settings or virtual reality (VR) environments. This learning curve may initially discourage participation. Improving digital literacy and familiarity with the virtual metaverse space will help facilitate more widespread participation. There are also startup and maintenance costs for hardware and software, as well as time and resource costs to onboard others and manage the metaverse spaces. Most metaverse software also requires a reliable internet connection and updated hardware to maximize the immersive experience.

The metaverse environment can also be impacted by use of a virtual reality headset vs a computer or smartphone screen. Although not essential, a VR headset enhances the immersive and interactive experience, allowing participants to feel as if they were physically present; however, the cost of the headset may be prohibitive and limit accessibility. More affordable headset options may emerge as technology improves, promoting more widespread inclusivity, although headset costs have continued to increase as the metaverse has matured from 2D to 3D virtual reality to augmented reality. When costs eventually plateau, the benefits of using immersive technology for meetings and conferences will become available to many more people.

Privacy and security risks are another challenge posed by any virtual setting, particularly when sharing protected health information and proprietary research, or when interacting with unknown attendees. Challenges around ownership and digital rights may also arise. Similarly, personal user information may be collected by metaverse platforms, which adds to data privacy risks. Implementing compliance protocols can help maintain confidentiality. Most professional spatial computing and metaverse platforms comply with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and are certified for user protection by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Like electronic health record platforms, another potential challenge of immersive technologies is a lack of interoperability. Different metaverse platforms may not be interchangeable or support interoperability and thus users may not be able to transfer their avatars or work with others across different platforms. In addition, potential concerns related to representation and identity may surface. If participants in the virtual space are permitted to be anonymous, there’s a risk that they could engage in behavior that is discriminatory, harassing, or otherwise inappropriate. Finally, as with video conferencing, virtual fatigue may occur after long sessions in the metaverse, contributing to decreased engagement.   

The Future Potential of the Metaverse

Immersive technologies such as the metaverse offer intriguing possibilities for collaboration and interaction. The advantages of global collaboration, cost-effective knowledge sharing, cutting-edge simulations, digital visualization, and flexible accessibility offers boundless opportunities. We must continue to work through existing challenges and limitations, such as activation energy, digital inclusivity, data privacy and security, and platform interoperability to support the more widespread adoption of meetings within the metaverse. Collaborative communication amongst retina specialists, meeting organizers, and software developers will allow us all to benefit from meetings in the metaverse and effectively navigate this new frontier of virtual communication. 

Eric Rosenberg, DO, MScEng, is a cataract surgeon at SightMD in Babylon, New York. He is co-CEO and founder of Metamed, a medical technology company that hosts medical meetings in the metaverse. He reports employment with Metamed.

Ranya Habash, MD, is a cataract surgeon at Stanford School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, and a digital health entrepreneur. She is on the FDA’s Digital Health Network of Experts, a Visionary Innovation Mentor at Stanford University, and co-chair of the AECOS Artificial Intelligence committee. Dr. Habash has co-founded HipaaChat, LifeLong Vision, and MetaMed and is an advisor to Doximity.

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