Before you read this month’s exciting Digest to close out the year, be sure check out our eighth annual trends forecast, in which we explain the five topics that pharma marketers need to pay attention to in 2023. Not only do we cover the medical metaverse – there’s a full page devoted to present-day examples of the medical metaverse in action.
Is the metaverse a tech platform?
- Ophthalmology takes the plunge into the metaverse (Healio) It was only a matter of time before a medical society held its annual meeting completely within a metaverse setting. Participants from the Digital Ophthalmic Society share details from their metaverse experience – what worked, what didn’t – and paint a surprisingly rosy picture for the application of VR tech in physician education.
- An electric body suit helps people with multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, walk (Interesting Engineering) The Exopulse Mollii suit sends mild electrical stimulation to muscles, helping people with spastic muscles to walk and experience less pain. Could technologies like this be used in concert with virtual experiences to help retrain body muscles and brain pathways both?
- The medical metaverse is already here (Medical Technology) If you’ve been following EVERSANA INTOUCH then you’ve heard this refrain before! The authors provide further proof that our industry will be among the first to benefit – from improved telemedicine to more effective anxiety treatments to better surgical outcomes.
Is the metaverse a game?
- Invisalign uses Roblox to highlight advantages of aligners over braces (MM&M) Here’s a smart example of metaverse dental marketing – with 40 million Roblox users, some of them must be interested in checking out what it’s like to get Invisalign. The brand set up shop in the Livetopia RPG on Roblox and partnered with a Roblox influencer on TikTok.
- Claire’s targets “Gen Zalpha” with Roblox virtual destination (Retail Dive) A good read for new jargon and for applicable concepts both! The retailer is targeting “Gen Zalpha,” the microgeneration that came of age in the virtual-world-centric pandemic. This audience, presently 10-20 years old, is the brand’s “phygical” (physical + digital) future. Could we call them metaverse natives, similar to Millennials’ classification as digital natives?
- XRHealth virtual clinic (XRHealth) Some healthcare metaverse innovation makes us wonder where VR will, and won’t, support medical goals. XRHealth, for instance, offers game-like products which promise positive healthcare outcomes (including virtual relaxation to mitigate pain and VR physical therapy). But is the headset participants receive anything more than a shiny object? We’ll soon find out … the service is covered by Medicare and open to its 63 million covered lives.
Is the metaverse a marketing channel?
- Mayo Clinic launches digital referee for spotting AI bias in healthcare (Fierce Biotech) The world-famous hospital system isn’t known for its IT offerings, but that may change. A consistent concern with all mHealth offerings, in and out of the metaverse, is their potential for in-built bias as a result of the blind spots from their developers or the data sets they use. An expert audit may help.
- Why Napster could be a metaverse hit (Acceleration Economy Network) “Early internet nostalgia” may help the company (yes, they’re still in business) attract attention in the metaverse. Could this apply to other brands? Should iomega ZIP get into telehealth cloud storage? Should there be a Curves Fitness in the metaverse?
- Starbucks is the latest food business to enter the metaverse (Inc) The news isn’t that Starbucks is constantly innovating its loyalty programs; of course they are. What’s interesting is that they’re doing it with a consumer-friendly, low-jargon approach that doesn’t talk much about it being Web3, blockchain, etc. Worth emulating.
Curious how we’re helping clients at EVERSANA INTOUCH wade into the medical metaverse? From AR educational experiences, to VR MOA projects, to virtual speaker events, to digital therapeutics, we’re guiding our clients toward what’s next. Want an educational presentation on the metaverse to help your team get up to speed? Talk to your account team.
Contributors: Paris Daniell, Ben Gauthier, Jeff Greene, Andrew Grojean, Jeff MacFarland, Nicole Maksimovic, Sarah Morgan, Carly Stilwell