Virtual worlds for real-life problems
Client: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Consultant: Dave Taylor, Programme Lead, Medical Media and Design Laboratory, Department of Surgery and Cancer
Expertise: New media applications in healthcare
Our consultants shared their expertise in new media applications in healthcare to help introduce the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center chemotherapy clinic staff and patients to a virtual world equivalent using the open source Second Life application.
The Challenge
The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre’s chemotherapy clinic approaches chemotherapy treatment in a completely different way to traditional hospitals, and the novel concepts will take staff and patients time to get used to. For this reason, they wanted to build a virtual Second Life imitation of it for staff to see it and adapt to it in a safe environment prior to working in the clinic.
Dave Taylor explains:
Typically staff have only a few days to get used to a new hospital building before it opens to the public. With a Second Life build exactly replicating it, staff can train for much longer beforehand in the virtual hospital, testing their operating procedures and planning their daily routines.
Dave Taylor
Programme Lead, Medical Media and Design Laboratory, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London
The Solution
Dave Taylor and his team have been using Second Life and similar virtual environments since 2006 and have expert knowledge in developing interactive environments for a wide range of advanced planning, training and assessment applications including clinical and major incident simulations to enhance the relationship between clinicians and patients as well as train new doctors more efficiently.
Dave Taylor explains:
Imperial was one of the founders of the science and technology region in Second Life, along with NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Dave Taylor
Programme Lead, Medical Media and Design Laboratory, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London
They built a virtual Second Life version of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre clinic based on the specifications of the real one, from the rooms and windows down to the furniture and equipment.
The Impact
Professor Lord Ara Darzi for the Medical Media and Design Laboratory says:
Many people think that Second Life is just for entertainment, but it’s so much more than that.
Ara Darzi
Professor Lord, Medical Media and Design Laboratory, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London
Dave Taylor is very happy with the outcome:
We’ve seen how effective it can be as a learning tool and how networking has evolved when it happens in a virtual world.
Dave Taylor
Programme Lead, Medical Media and Design Laboratory, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London
Share post:
Related case studies
Discovery Channel’s ‘Breaking Magic’
Dr Roberto Trotta provided scientific expertise to the production team of ‘Breaking Magic’, which airs on the Discovery Channel. read more
Putting science into Sci-Fi
When Left Bank Pictures (producers of The Crown and Lost) were looking for someone to give their Sci fi adventure, ORIGIN, a touch of realism - they called upon Imperial Consultants. Thanks to his previous work with filmmakers, writers and artists, they were introduced to Dr Roberto Trotta, a theoretical cosmologist renowned for taking on the unusual - and gifted in translating ‘science-speak’ into layman’s terms. read more
Imperial COVID-19 testing facilities
Imperial's facility, comprising the UKAS accredited Molecular Diagnostic Unit (MDU) and high-throughput robotic platform for RNA extraction, forms part of the Department of Health and Social Care's partnership with the London Testing Alliance, set-up by MedCity. read more