Use of Second Life in the Health Care Industry.

            I was always negative about Second Life because I have a friend who had a Second Life addiction.  I do not know what happened in his life that led him to this condition, but this dependence almost ruined his family and business.  He is a very successful businessman with a wife and two beautiful children.  At one point he neglected his family and completely sacrificed himself into Second Life.  He continued working, but as soon as he got home, he would close his office door and spend hours, sometimes nights in Second Life.  Because of sleepless nights he was poorly managing his business. As a result, his wife could not take it anymore and started the divorce process.  Eventually his relatives and friends had to intervene and were able to get my friend into professional psychiatric treatment.  It took many hours of counseling sessions and many days to bring my friend back to a normal productive life.  His wife did not divorce him and he is successfully managing his business despite economical crisis.

            When I was asked by my professor at UC Davis to join Second Life and create an avatar I was somewhat anxious.  But it was a graded assignment, so I joined Second Life and adopted an avatar that I named Larry Seubert.  I watched videos created by UC Davis staff and took an orientation session offered by Second Life.  When I was orienting on the welcome island, a couple of avatars came to me and asked about me.  Then I realized that Second Life is very power social tool that it can be used for both, good and bad causes.  It is like a knife that can be used to cut bread and can be used to kill. 

            So, what is the potential of Second Life for the healthcare industry?  I was amazed when I watched the Second Life seminar in “Davis Island” organized by UC Davis. On-line education becomes more and more popular and this element takes it to a new level.  However, all on-line courses I taken have had deficient interaction between professor and students.  These interactions are usually limited to e-mails and occasional chats.  But having a class session on the Second Life is like having a real classroom education.  The only difference is that professor and students have to create an avatar, have speakers and microphone and teleport to the classroom on time.  This is very convenient.  Second Life makes it possible to have real classroom experience from your home.   This real time class experience can be used for patient education as well.  For example, some medical institutions can create a diabetic class where the patient can come, interact with the educator, look at some cartoon-like model and so on. I think that there is a big potential in Second Life for patient education.  The only question is, who is going to do it and how to make it reliable and have ease of use. Second Life has a significant learning curve which may be difficult for current patients.