Skip to content
2000
image of Integrating Telemedicine, Virtual Environments, and AI in Digital Healthcare: Advances and Future Directions

Abstract

Objectives

The delivery of healthcare services information and communication technology, or telemedicine, has grown to be an essential part of modern medicine. This study explores the evolving role of telemedicine, focusing on its expansion into the Metaverse, and evaluates its potential to improve healthcare accessibility, patient engagement, and medical outcomes.

Methods

A comprehensive analysis of the literature was conducted, evaluating studies investigating the efficacy of telemedicine in different medical fields, notably mental health, chronic disease management, and post-surgical follow-ups. This study assessed the impact of emerging technologies, specifically virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), on telemedicine, emphasizing their applications within the Metaverse. Furthermore, ethical considerations, insurance limitations, and technological disparities were assessed.

Results

Telemedicine has significantly enhanced healthcare access, especially in remote and underserved regions. Patient satisfaction and purpose to continue with telemedicine services are elevated, particularly in specialized areas like Tele-stroke and mental health counseling.

Discussion

The Metaverse has the potential to transform telemedicine through the establishment of immersive and interactive healthcare settings. VR and AR have the potential to facilitate virtual consultations, enhancing the interaction between patients and healthcare professionals. Additionally, the integration of data may lead to improvements in diagnostic accuracy and treatment planning. However, issues such as data privacy, cybersecurity hazards, and the digital gap must be addressed to provide adequate access.

Conclusion

Telemedicine has demonstrated significant utility within modern healthcare, and its incorporation with the Metaverse offers novel prospects for improving patient care, advancing medical education, and facilitating collaborative research. Despite the promising benefits, it is crucial to address technological, ethical, and regulatory challenges to ensure widespread adoption and successful implementation.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/cpd/10.2174/0113816128392838250902182114
2025-10-14
2025-11-04
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Ezeamii V.C. Okobi O.E. Wambai-Sani H. Revolutionizing healthcare: How telemedicine is improving patient outcomes and expanding access to care. Cureus 2024 16 7 e63881 10.7759/cureus.63881 39099901
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Haleem A. Javaid M. Singh R.P. Suman R. Telemedicine for healthcare: Capabilities, features, barriers, and applications. Sensors International 2021 2 100117 10.1016/j.sintl.2021.100117 34806053
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Zhang P. Gao B. Yiang W. Qin S. Requirement study of telemedicine system and product. 2010 3rd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Informatics Yantai, China 16-18 October 2010 1906 1909 10.1109/BMEI.2010.5639527
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Al Kuwaiti A. Nazer K. Al-Reedy A. A review of the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare. J. Pers. Med. 2023 13 6 951 10.3390/jpm13060951 37373940
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Funderskov K. Danbjørg D.B. Telemedicine in specialised palliative care: healthcare professionals’ and their perspectives on video consultations – A qualitative study. J. Clin. Nurs. 2019 28 21-22 3966 3976 10.1111/jocn.15004 31328336
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Rockwell K. Care A.G.A.J.M. Incorporating telemedicine as part of COVID-19 outbreak response systems. Am. J. Manag. Care 2020 26 4 147 148 10.37765/ajmc.2020.42784 32270980
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Sarhan F. Telemedicine in healthcare. 1: Exploring its uses, benefits and disadvantages. Nurs. Times 2009 105 42 10 13 19916354
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Mars M. Telemedicine and advances in urban and rural healthcare delivery in Africa. Prog. Cardiovasc. Dis. 2013 56 3 326 335 10.1016/j.pcad.2013.10.006 24267440
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Leiz M. Pfeuffer N. Rehner L. Stentzel U. van den Berg N. Telemedicine as a tool to improve medicine adherence in patients with affective disorders – A systematic literature review. Patient Prefer. Adherence 2022 16 3441 3463 10.2147/PPA.S388106 36605330
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Schulze L.N. Stentzel U. Leipert J. Improving medication adherence with telemedicine for adults with severe mental illness. Psychiatr. Serv. 2019 70 3 225 228 10.1176/appi.ps.201800286 30651059
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Zheng Y Adhikari S Li X Association between videobased 42 telemedicine visits and medication adherence among patients 43 with heart failure: Retrospective cross-sectional study JMIR 44 Cardio 2024 8 1 v8i8e56763. 10.2196/56763 39637412
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Kim H.J. Tomaszewski M. Zhao B. Impact of telehealth on medication adherence in chronic gastrointestinal diseases. J. Can. Assoc. Gastroenterol. 2022 5 5 203 207 10.1093/jcag/gwac016 36193346
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Pekmezaris R. Williams M.S. Pascarelli B. Adapting a home telemonitoring intervention for underserved Hispanic/Latino patients with type 2 diabetes: An acceptability and feasibility study. BMC Med. Inform. Decis. Mak. 2020 20 1 324 10.1186/s12911‑020‑01346‑0 33287815
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Return on health telehealth case study: Hypertension digital medicine 56 program 2024 Available fromhttps://www.ama-assn.org/ practice-management/digital-health/return-health-telehealth-casestudy- hypertension-digital
  15. Gorrie A. Gold J. Cameron C. Krause M. Kincaid H. Benefits and limitations of telegenetics: A literature review. J. Genet. Couns. 2021 30 4 924 937 10.1002/jgc4.1418 33817891
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Konttila J. Siira H. Kyngäs H. Healthcare professionals’ competence in digitalisation: A systematic review. J. Clin. Nurs. 2019 28 5-6 745 761 10.1111/jocn.14710 30376199
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Silkova O. Lobach N. The use of telemedicine resources in the medical education process. Pedagogy Form Creat Pers High Second Sch 2021 3 75 65 68 10.32840/1992‑5786.2021.75‑3.12
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Ning A.Y. Cabrera C.I. D’Anza B. Telemedicine in otolaryngology: A systematic review of image quality, diagnostic concordance, and patient and provider satisfaction. Ann. Otol. Rhinol. Laryngol. 2021 130 2 195 204 10.1177/0003489420939590 32659100
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Portz J.D. Bayliss E.A. Bull S. Boxer R.S. Bekelman D.B. Gleason K. Using the Technology Acceptance Model to explore user experience, intent to use, and use behavior of a patient portal among older adults with multiple chronic conditions: Descriptive qualitative study. J. Med. Internet Res. 2019 21 4 10.2196/11604
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Mishra S. Kapoor L. Telemedicine in India: Current scenario and the future. Telemed. J. E Health 2009 15 6 568 575 10.1089/tmj.2009.0059 19659413
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Muhammad AK Role of telemedicine in healthcare during 86 COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries. Telehealth Med 87 Today 2020 5 2 10.30953/tmt.v5.187
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Sharma R. Fleischut P. Barchi D. Telemedicine and its transformation of emergency care: A case study of one of the largest US integrated healthcare delivery systems. Int. J. Emerg. Med. 2017 10 1 21 10.1186/s12245‑017‑0146‑7 28685213
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Amjad A. Kordel P. Fernandes G. A review on innovation in healthcare sector (telehealth) through artificial intelligence. Sustainability 2023 15 8 6655 10.3390/su15086655
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Barney A. Buckelew S. The COVID-19 pandemic and rapid implementation of adolescent and young adult telemedicine: Challenges and opportunities for innovation. J. Adolesc. Health 2020 67 2 164 171 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.05.006 32410810
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Garavand A. Unlocked N.A-I. Metaverse phenomenon and its impact on health: A scoping review. Informatics Med Unlock 2022 32 101029 10.1016/j.imu.2022.101029
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Sugimoto M Sueyoshi T. Development of Holoeyes holographic 109 image-guided surgery and telemedicine system: Clinical benefits 110 of extended reality (virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality), 111 the metaverse, and artificial intelligence in surgery with a systematic 112 review Med Res Arch 2023 11 7.1 10.18103/mra.v11i7.1.4045
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Damar M. What the literature on medicine, nursing, public health, midwifery, and dentistry reveals: An overview of the rapidly approaching metaverse. J Metaverse 2022 2 2 62 70 10.57019/jmv.1132962
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Bhattacharya P. Obaidat M. Metaverse assisted telesurgery in 119 healthcare 5.0: An interplay of blockchain and explainable AI 2022 International Conference on Computer, Information and Telecommunication Systems (CITS) Piraeus, Greece 13-15 July 2022 1 5 10.1109/CITS55221.2022.9832978
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Skalidis I. Muller O. Fournier S. CardioVerse: The cardiovascular medicine in the era of Metaverse. Trends Cardiovasc. Med. 2023 33 8 471 476 10.1016/j.tcm.2022.05.004 35568263
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Koo H. Training in lung cancer surgery through the metaverse, including extended reality, in the smart operating room of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Korea. J. Educ. Eval. Health Prof. 2021 18 33 10.3352/jeehp.2021.18.33 34965648
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Ramesh P.V. Joshua T. Ray P. Holographic elysium of a 4D ophthalmic anatomical and pathological metaverse with extended reality/mixed reality. Indian J. Ophthalmol. 2022 70 8 3116 3121 10.4103/ijo.IJO_120_22 35918983
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Chapman J.R. Wang J.C. Wiechert K. Into the spine metaverse: Reflections on a future metaspine (uni-)verse. Global Spine J. 2022 12 4 545 547 10.1177/21925682221085643 35506945
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Langarizadeh M. Tabatabaei M. Tavakol K. Naghipour M. Moghbeli F. Moghbeli F. Telemental health care, an effective alternative to conventional mental care: A systematic review. Acta Inform. Med. 2017 25 4 240 246 10.5455/aim.2017.25.240‑246 29284913
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Tlili A. Huang R. Shehata B. Is Metaverse in education a blessing or a curse: A combined content and bibliometric analysis. Smart Learn Environ 2022 9 1 24 10.1186/s40561‑022‑00205‑x
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Chengoden R Victor N Huynh-The T Metaverse for healthcare: A survey on potential applications, challenges and future directions. IEEE Access 2023 11 12765 95 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3241628
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Fontenot K. Integrating technology, telehealth, and videoconferencing as tools for providing modern approaches to spiritual care in the clinical setting as a hospital chaplain. Doctoral Dissertations and Projects 2022
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Koohang A. Nord J.H. Ooi K.B. Tan G.W.H. Al-Emran M. Aw E.C.X. Shaping the metaverse into reality: A holistic multidisciplinary understanding of opportunities. Challenges, and Avenues for Future Investigation 2023 63 3 735 765 10.1080/0887441720232165197
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Ku K. Mahabaleshwarkar P.S. Building interactive modeling for construction education in virtual worlds. J Inf Technol Constr 2011 16 189 208
    [Google Scholar]
  39. McGrath J.L. Taekman J.M. Dev P. Using virtual reality simulation environments to assess competence for emergency medicine learners. Acad. Emerg. Med. 2018 25 2 186 195 10.1111/acem.13308 28888070
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Le Q.T. Pedro A. Park C.S. A social virtual reality based construction safety education system for experiential learning. J. Intell. Robot. Syst. 2015 79 3-4 487 506 10.1007/s10846‑014‑0112‑z
    [Google Scholar]
  41. van der Linde-van den Bor M. Slond F. Liesdek O.C.D. Suyker W.J. Weldam S.W.M. The use of virtual reality in patient education related to medical somatic treatment: A scoping review. Patient Educ. Couns. 2022 105 7 1828 1841 10.1016/j.pec.2021.12.015 35000833
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Ghazi A.E. Teplitz B.A. Role of 3D printing in surgical education for robotic urology procedures. Transl. Androl. Urol. 2020 9 2 931 941 10.21037/tau.2020.01.03 32420209
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Towers A. Dixon J. Field J. Martin R. Martin N. Combining virtual reality and 3D‐printed models to simulate patient‐specific dental operative procedures—A study exploring student perceptions. Eur. J. Dent. Educ. 2022 26 2 393 403 10.1111/eje.12715 34498360
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Stromberga Z. Phelps C. Smith J. Moro C. Teaching with disruptive technology: The use of augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (HoloLens) for disease education. Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 2021 1317 147 162 10.1007/978‑3‑030‑61125‑5_8 33945136
    [Google Scholar]
  45. van der Kruk S.R. Zielinski R. MacDougall H. Hughes-Barton D. Gunn K.M. Virtual reality as a patient education tool in healthcare: A scoping review. Patient Educ. Couns. 2022 105 7 1928 1942 10.1016/j.pec.2022.02.005 35168856
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Valverde I. Three-dimensional printed cardiac models: Applications in the field of medical education, cardiovascular surgery, and structural heart interventions. Rev. Esp. Cardiol. 2017 70 4 282 291 10.1016/j.rec.2017.01.012 28189544
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Campisi C.A. Li E.H. Jimenez D.E. Milanaik R.L. Augmented reality in medical education and training: From physicians to patients. Springer 2020 111 138 10.1007/978‑3‑030‑42156‑4_7
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Raval S. The metaverse: Reshaping the virtual economy to solve real-world problems. J Data Acquis Process 2023 38 3 1172 10.5281/zenodo.7923108
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Mozumder M.A.I. Armand T.P.T. Imtiyaj Uddin S.M. Athar A. Sumon R.I. Hussain A. Metaverse for digital anti-aging healthcare: An overview of potential use cases based on artificial intelligence, blockchain, IoT technologies, its challenges, and future directions. Appl. Sci. 2023 13 8 5127 10.3390/app13085127
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Moro C. Utilizing the metaverse in anatomy and physiology. Anat. Sci. Educ. 2023 16 4 574 581 10.1002/ase.2244 36545794
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Park K.B. Kim M. Choi S.H. Lee J.Y. Deep learning-based smart task assistance in wearable augmented reality. Robot. Comput.-Integr. Manuf. 2020 63 101887 10.1016/j.rcim.2019.101887
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Parsons K.M. Teacher perspectives on mobile augmented reality: The potential of metaverse for learning 8th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (mLearn 2019). Delft, Netherlands, 2019
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Zhang H. Luo G. Li Y. Wang F.Y. Parallel vision for intelligent transportation systems in metaverse: Challenges, solutions, and potential applications. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Syst. 2023 53 6 3400 3413 10.1109/TSMC.2022.3228314
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Lin H. Wan S. Gan W. Chen J. Chao H.C. Metaverse in education: Vision, Opportunities, and Challenges. 2022 2022 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) Osaka, Japan 17-20 December 2857 2866 10.1109/BigData55660.2022.10021004
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Dan Neamtu G. Fang J-J. Suh I. McKinney T. Siu K-C. Current perspective of metaverse application in medical education, research and patient care. Virtual Worlds 2023 2 2 115 128 10.3390/virtualworlds2020007
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Allen S.J. On the cutting edge or the chopping block? Fostering a digital mindset and tech literacy in business management education. J. Manage. Educ. 2020 44 3 362 393 10.1177/1052562920903077
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Khan L.U. Yaqoob I. Member S. Salah K. Seon Hong C. Member S. Machine Learning for wireless metaverse: Fundamentals, use case, and future directions rXiv 2022; arXiv:2211.03703 2022 10.48550/arXiv.2211.03703
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Chen D. Zhang R. Exploring research trends of emerging technologies in health metaverse: A bibliometric analysis. SSRN Electron J 2022 10.2139/ssrn.3998068
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/cpd/10.2174/0113816128392838250902182114
Loading
/content/journals/cpd/10.2174/0113816128392838250902182114
Loading

Data & Media loading...


  • Article Type:
    Research Article
Keywords: Patient care ; telehealth ; metaverse ; telemedicine ; patient support ; digital era
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test