Second Life and Healthcare

I've spent some time looking at Second Life and I'm left wondering: where are the Healthcare companies that should be in here, and where is the organised public health education?

There are a couple of health sites - the NHS is a very good example, but it's role is to demonstrate and gather feedback on new ways of deploying health care to the public. It doesn't provide health or disease related information. Healh Info Island has more of an informal feel to it, and while it provides a large volume of content, the the arrangement of it and its level of ineraction seems somewhat limited.

My interest in health care in Second Life is as a precursor to the next age of Second Life and Virtual worlds as a whole. I think we have now passed through our first age and the technology is now established, the user base is built and the first wave of corporate projects have entered and the majority has left. Some key corporates remain and make successful use of the environment - IBM, Cisco, Reuters and a few other are the leaders in this.

The trouble is, that for the majority of other businesses in Second Life, what happens in Second Life stays there. The in-world economy is booming. It's fashion and entertainment industries continue to expand. What is lacks is real cross-over business that has significance both in-world and in real life, and establishing these types of business will be key to Second Life (and virtual worlds as a group) moving into their new age.

I see healthcare as a key component of this. The internet is having a revolutionary effect on the public's ability to research their own health care. From access to disease area information, to details of products and the experiences of other patients the public have access to a huge amounts of information.

Second Life offers great scope for patient education, peer support and sharing personal experiences ... these conversations are already taking place in the web, but it seems that (in the UK at least) the health care industry isn't part of them.

Of course, if you think that I'm wrong and there's something I've missed please post it here!

Alan