The world is changing, for any patient and doctor out there. Let’s look at a standard day in a world where, somewhere in the future, the entire health industry gets revolutionized by blockchain (and the metaverse). It’s a random morning in Milan.
9 am
Marco, our patient and hero, has just arrived in a known Milanese hospital, where he meets the very well-known Doctor Andrea Fanti. Marco shares his personal wallet with Andrea, which contains all his medical records, his past operations, his x-rays, his biometric data, and tests of a lifetime, protected by his own NFT. No one has access to that information unless Marco authorizes their viewing. Andrea notes down the address of Marco’s wallet, where all the exams that will be carried out from now on will be air-dropped, modifying Marco’s dynamic NFT. Everything will be sent in a secure, immutable, and private manner.
10 am
Andrea performs a simple operation, assisted by augmented reality and artificial intelligence (via smart glasses). Thanks (1) to AR, all surgery errors have been reduced to zero, by using (2) the database of millions of similar operations, processed on the spot by AI. The operation is performed in ten minutes, reducing costs and impact on the patient. For all apprentices in the room, the learning time of the procedure is reduced to just a few sessions, thanks again to the combined use of AR and AI.
10.30 am
The entire procedure has been filmed, thanks to a device applied to each doctor’s glasses. The procedure was recorded on the blockchain and dropped automatically into the patient’s wallet. Further tests and x-rays will follow the same principle, to protect the patient, the doctors, and the hospital in the event of a dispute or a mistake. Blockchain works as the ‘black box’ for all activities happening every single second. It’s all publicly available, to those who have permission to access the data. Confidential information is obfuscated, and available to the patient or the doctor only. Andrea uses the video to receive feedback from colleagues, in person or remotely, or to train resident doctors, in person or remotely. The video is made available instantly with all hospitals in the world, taking good care to hide the identity and personal data of the patient. Continuous feedback from abroad and from insiders increases the productivity of the entire department, eliminating the risk of future mistakes.
Noon
In the afternoon Andrea needs to perform a very complex surgery, which requires the use of augmented reality and special glasses, which project the patient’s exams and x-rays from the metaverse, to make them available during the moment of the incision. As always, all the staff simulated the incision 30 minutes before the operation, using the patient’s data, and comparing them with those of similar cases, thanks to the use of AI. A specialist from Chicago connects remotely to follow the most delicate part of the operation, via the metaverse. Before this new process, the operation would have lasted twice as long, with obvious impact on costs and patient post-operative recovery.
3 pm
Once the procedure is completed, Andrea’s resident students and young doctors work in the metaverse (the Virtual Lab) with special glasses and haptic perception tools, to learn how to do the same procedure, receiving feedback from colleagues and professors in real time. The metaverse, made of hardware and software, becomes the only locus in which to learn the theory and practice of any surgery, using aggregate data or simulating an intervention thanks to historical similar cases, and working on the exact copy of an organ, reconstructed digitally (Virtual Reconstruction). Andrea follows the training session from his office. 3D modeling and the metaverse have reduced training costs for all staff by 50%, exponentially accelerating the surgeon’s learning time. All data get recorded on the hospital’s public chain. Doctors get scored from the overall community of experts, rewarding the skilled ones, and helping the others on where exactly they can do better. All of that happens transparently, securely and with data being impossible to hack, thanks to the blockchain’s main features.
4 pm
Andrea now relaxes in his office, while visiting the Dubai Expo, which lives digitally in the metaverse, after having happened IRL last year. Andrea wanted to visit the Italian pavilion, to get inspiration for an upcoming conference in which he will join as a speaker. At the pavilion he meets with a manager of a pharmaceutical company, to discuss some innovations, using digital and interactive renderings in front of them, with which to conduct the meeting in a productive and effective way. The meeting’s exchange is recorded onto the blockchain, so that everyone is protected, especially because it’s taxpayers’ money, in the end. We lied. This is not the future. This is already what is happening already now. The world has already changed. Blockchain (and the metaverse) are the driving force behind the revolution in strategic industries like education, finance and, indeed, health. Welcome to the present. A present, where blockchain runs the world efficiently and effectively.
