Metaverse Wearables for Immersive Digital Healthcare: A Review

Metaverse in surgery - origins and future potential

The metaverse refers to a collective virtual space that combines physical and digital realities to create immersive, interactive environments. This space is powered by technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. In healthcare, the metaverse can offer many applications. Specifically in surgery, potential uses of the metaverse include the possibility of conducting immersive surgical training in a VR or AR setting, and enhancing surgical planning through the adoption of three-dimensional virtual models and simulated procedures. At the intraoperative level, AR-guided surgery can assist the surgeon in real time to increase surgical precision in tumour identification and selective management of vessels. In post-operative care, potential uses of the metaverse include recovery monitoring and patient education. In urology, AR and VR have been widely explored in the past decade, mainly for surgical navigation in prostate and kidney cancer surgery, whereas only anecdotal metaverse experiences have been reported to date, specifically in partial nephrectomy. In the future, further integration of AI will improve the metaverse experience, potentially increasing the possibility of carrying out surgical navigation, data collection and virtual trials within the metaverse. However, challenges concerning data security and regulatory compliance must be addressed before the metaverse can be used to improve patient care.

Analysing the public's beliefs, emotions and sentiments towards Metaverse workplace: A big-data qualitative inquiry

The Metaverse is gaining attention as a potential future workplace, and advancements in VR/AR technologies are set to revolutionise how we work and collaborate. Extensive research using big data is still needed to fully comprehend the public's perception of this emerging field. Grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DIT), and Social Presence Theory (SPT), this study seeks to fill this knowledge gap. Using a methodology that involved machine learning and qualitative analysis of big data, the research gathered comments from social media users on widely viewed YouTube videos discussing the Metaverse workplace. The initial dataset, which contained 6982 comments, underwent thorough cleaning processes, resulting in the analysis of 2804 comments through thematic, emotion, and sentiment analyses. The process of the thematic analysis revealed that out of the total comments, 472 were unclassified, while the remaining 2332 helped structure the public's beliefs about the Metaverse workplace into four overarching themes: 1- benefits of flexibility and accessibility (37 %), highlighting VR's potential to transform workspaces, especially for creative fields and efficient space use; 2- Health concerns (26 %), including eye strain and physical discomfort from prolonged headset use; 3- data privacy and corporate control fears (20 %), reflecting worries over pervasive data collection and potential misuse of power; 4- scepticism over readiness and practicality (17 %), noting visual clarity challenges and ergonomic issues. The overall vibes about working in the Metaverse are mixed. While more than half the sentiments were positive, expressing contentment, curiosity and enthusiasm, there were also concerns about health effects, data privacy, and integration issues. The public recognises Metaverse's potential for remote work, desiring improvements in areas like visual clarity, ergonomics and productivity support before widespread adoption. This study is a pioneering effort in the field, providing a first-of-its-kind structure of the public's beliefs about the Metaverse workplace, drawing upon naturally occurring data. The findings not only contribute to the academic understanding of the Metaverse workplace but also have significant implications for society and practitioners for optimising the positive aspects to enhance overall acceptance in this relatively understudied field.

Revolutionary Point-of-Care Wearable Diagnostics for Early Disease Detection and Biomarker Discovery through Intelligent Technologies

Early-stage disease detection, particularly in Point-Of-Care (POC) wearable formats, assumes pivotal role in advancing healthcare services and precision-medicine. Public benefits of early detection extend beyond cost-effectively promoting healthcare outcomes, to also include reducing the risk of comorbid diseases. Technological advancements enabling POC biomarker recognition empower discovery of new markers for various health conditions. Integration of POC wearables for biomarker detection with intelligent frameworks represents ground-breaking innovations enabling automation of operations, conducting advanced large-scale data analysis, generating predictive models, and facilitating remote and guided clinical decision-making. These advancements substantially alleviate socioeconomic burdens, creating a paradigm shift in diagnostics, and revolutionizing medical assessments and technology development. This review explores critical topics and recent progress in development of 1) POC systems and wearable solutions for early disease detection and physiological monitoring, as well as 2) discussing current trends in adoption of smart technologies within clinical settings and in developing biological assays, and ultimately 3) exploring utilities of POC systems and smart platforms for biomarker discovery. Additionally, the review explores technology translation from research labs to broader applications. It also addresses associated risks, biases, and challenges of widespread Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration in diagnostics systems, while systematically outlining potential prospects, current challenges, and opportunities.

Advances in Piezoelectret Materials-Based Bidirectional Haptic Communication Devices

Bidirectional haptic communication devices accelerate the revolution of virtual/augmented reality and flexible/wearable electronics. As an emerging kind of flexible piezoelectric materials, piezoelectret materials can effortlessly convert mechanical force into electrical signals and respond to electrical fields in a deformation manner, exhibiting enormous potential in the construction of bidirectional haptic communication devices. Existing reviews on piezoelectret materials primarily focus on flexible energy harvesters and sensors, and the recent development of piezoelectret-based bidirectional haptic communication devices has not been comprehensively reviewed. Herein, a comprehensive overview of the materials construction, along with the recent advances in bidirectional haptic communication devices, is provided. First, the development timeline, key characteristics, and various fabrication methods of piezoelectret materials are introduced. Subsequently, following the underlying mechanisms of bidirectional electromechanical signal conversion of piezoelectret, strategies to improve the d33 coefficients of materials are proposed. The principles of haptic perception and feedback are also highlighted, and representative works and progress in this area are summarized. Finally, the challenges and opportunities associated with improving the overall practicability of piezoelectret materials-based bidirectional haptic communication devices are discussed.

Digital technologies to unlock safe and sustainable opportunities for medical device and healthcare sectors with a focus on the combined use of digital twin and extended reality applications: A review

Medical devices have increased in complexity where there is a pressing need to consider design thinking and specialist training for manufacturers, healthcare and sterilization providers, and regulators. Appropriately addressing this consideration will positively inform end-to-end supply chain and logistics, production, processing, sterilization, safety, regulation, education, sustainability and circularity. There are significant opportunities to innovate and to develop appropriate digital tools to help unlock efficiencies in these important areas. This constitutes the first paper to create an awareness of and to define different digital technologies for informing and enabling medical device production from a holistic end-to-end life cycle perspective. It describes the added-value of using digital innovations to meet emerging opportunities for many disposable and reusable medical devices. It addresses the value of accessing and using integrated multi-actor HUBs that combine academia, industry, healthcare, regulators and society to help meet these opportunities. Such as cost-effective access to specialist pilot facilities and expertise that converges digital innovation, material science, biocompatibility, sterility assurance, business model and sustainability. It highlights the marked gap in academic R&D activities (PRISMA review of best publications conducted between January 2010 and January 2024) and the actual list of U.S. FDA's approved and marketed artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), and augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) enabled-medical devices for different healthcare applications. Bespoke examples of benefits underlying future use of digital tools includes potential implementation of machine learning for supporting and enabling parametric release of sterilized products through efficient monitoring of critical process data (complying with ISO 11135:2014) that would benefit stakeholders. This paper also focuses on the transformative potential of combining digital twin with extended reality innovations to inform efficiencies in medical device design thinking, supply chain and training to inform patient safety, circularity and sustainability.

Artificial intelligence to enhance prehospital stroke diagnosis and triage: a perspective

As health systems organize to deliver the highest quality stroke care to their patients, there is increasing emphasis being placed on prehospital stroke recognition, accurate diagnosis, and efficient triage to improve outcomes after stroke. Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel currently rely heavily on dispatch accuracy, stroke screening tools, bypass protocols and prehospital notification to care for patients with suspected stroke, but novel tools including mobile stroke units and telemedicine-enabled ambulances are already changing the landscape of prehospital stroke care. Herein, the authors provide our perspective on the current state of prehospital stroke diagnosis and triage including several of these emerging trends. Then, we provide commentary to highlight potential artificial intelligence (AI) applications to improve stroke detection, improve accurate and timely dispatch, enhance EMS training and performance, and develop novel stroke diagnostic tools for prehospital use.

Photonics-powered augmented reality skin electronics for proactive healthcare: multifaceted opportunities

Rapid technological advancements have created opportunities for new solutions in various industries, including healthcare. One exciting new direction in this field of innovation is the combination of skin-based technologies and augmented reality (AR). These dermatological devices allow for the continuous and non-invasive measurement of vital signs and biomarkers, enabling the real-time diagnosis of anomalies, which have applications in telemedicine, oncology, dermatology, and early diagnostics. Despite its many potential benefits, there is a substantial information vacuum regarding using flexible photonics in conjunction with augmented reality for medical purposes. This review explores the current state of dermal augmented reality and flexible optics in skin-conforming sensing platforms by examining the obstacles faced thus far, including technical hurdles, demanding clinical validation standards, and problems with user acceptance. Our main areas of interest are skills, chiroptical properties, and health platform applications, such as optogenetic pixels, spectroscopic imagers, and optical biosensors. My skin-enhanced spherical dichroism and powerful spherically polarized light enable thorough physical inspection with these augmented reality devices: diabetic tracking, skin cancer diagnosis, and cardiovascular illness: preventative medicine, namely blood pressure screening. We demonstrate how to accomplish early prevention using case studies and emergency detection. Finally, it addresses real-world obstacles that hinder fully realizing these materials' extraordinary potential in advancing proactive and preventative personalized medicine, including technical constraints, clinical validation gaps, and barriers to widespread adoption.