The medical avatar and its role in neurorehabilitation and neuroplasticity: A review

My Real Avatar has a Doctor Appointment in the Wepital: A System for Persistent, Efficient, and Ubiquitous Medical Care

COVID-19 created a great deal of personal, social, and economic anxiety in the USA and across the globe and exposed the inadequacy of traditional medical systems in handling large-scale emergencies. While telemedicine and virtual visits have become popular as a result, they end once a visit is over, hence lacking data persistence and continuity in caring for patients. Using the design science research approach with support from the theory of affordances, this paper proposes the design of a medical system (called wepital) in which patients receive care through their real avatars, enabling hospitals and other medical centers to provide immediate care that can continue for as long as a patient needs it. Real avatars are digital representations of patients that embody their real-time vital signs and health information. We have created a functional prototype to demonstrate how the proposed design can work. To assess the usability of the design, we have used the prototype in an experiment to provide medical advice to patient volunteers. Based on a theory-based conceptual model, we collected survey data after the experiment to identify factors contributing to the success of such a system, as measured by patient satisfaction. We report the factors that significantly contribute to the patients’ satisfaction. As part of the application and policy implications of our work, we propose a nationwide system that could supplement and expand the capacity of medical systems at the national or even global level.

Virtual Hand Illusion in younger and older adults

Introduction

Embodiment involves experiencing ownership over our body and localizing it in space and is informed by multiple senses (visual, proprioceptive and tactile). Evidence suggests that embodiment and multisensory integration may change with older age. The Virtual Hand Illusion (VHI) has been used to investigate multisensory contributions to embodiment, but has never been evaluated in older adults. Spatio-temporal factors unique to virtual environments may differentially affect the embodied perceptions of older and younger adults.

Methods

Twenty-one younger (18–35 years) and 19 older (65+ years) adults completed the VHI paradigm. Body localization was measured at baseline and again, with subjective ownership ratings, following synchronous and asynchronous visual-tactile interactions.

Results

Higher ownership ratings were observed in the synchronous relative to the asynchronous condition, but no effects on localization/drift were found. No age differences were observed. Localization accuracy was biased in both age groups when the virtual hand was aligned with the real hand, indicating a visual mislocalization of the virtual hand.

Conclusions

No age-related differences in the VHI were observed. Mislocalization of the hand in VR occurred for both groups, even when congruent and aligned; however, tactile feedback reduced localization biases. Our results expand the current understanding of age-related changes in multisensory embodiment within virtual environments.