The Metaverse in Medicine can be defined as the medical Internet of Things facilitated using AR and VR glasses. Metaverse is evolving; it holds new potential in healthcare that combines technologies like AI, VR, AR, Internet of Medical Devices, Web 3.0, intelligent cloud, edge, and quantum computing along with robotics to provide new directions to healthcare.

Metaverse involves the convergence of telepresence, digital twinning, and blockchain major technological trends, which all have the potential to impact healthcare individually. Digital twinning will come about through our increasing ability to map and understand individual genetics, blockchains are actually just distributed and encrypted databases that allow data to be stored securely. The fact that health records are usually stored on centralized servers means that our data is at risk of being stolen. And doctors and nurses have found that they are able to more quickly and efficiently diagnose many of the minor conditions that make up the vast majority of their caseload via a telephone or video call. Telemedicine consultations, particularly through VR, mean patients are no longer limited to being treated by particular clinicians due to their physical location. VR is getting used by doctors and experts to train fellow doctors and medical staff. Together, though, they could create entirely new channels for delivering care that have the potential to lower costs and vastly improve patient outcomes. The Metaverse is already showing signs in digital therapeutics is seeing rapid adoption of this form of therapy, where VR and AR tech in the metaverse enables applications such as cognitive therapy, support groups, psychiatric evaluations, rehabilitation, and even physical therapy with the support of haptic sensors.

The Metaverse is expected to be an effective tool to help perform complicated surgical procedures and enhance patient care. As surgical procedures were already using robotics, now complicated surgeries are all set to use AR. And for efficient diagnosis using tech such as smart glasses.

The healthcare department of Radiology imaging will obviously benefit from the metaverse's immersive visual capabilities, unleashing new capabilities in radiology. And there are some of the challenges of the metaverse in healthcare. Healthcare is often targeted by cybercriminals as a high-value and susceptible target and to enable the full potential of the metaverse in healthcare, it requires massive infrastructure to function.

Top 3 healthcare companies working on metaverse:

• Latus Healthcare: It is developing a "virtual hospital". It comprises a virtual reality hospital environment, where treatments will at first be focused on physiotherapy services.

• iMining: The first-ever hospital foundation to be launched in the Decentraland Metaverse.

• Apollo hospitals: Apollo hospital group has announced a unique collaboration with '8chili Inc' to enable engagement within the metaverse.