Parallel universe
The medical community is trying to find real-life benefits from experiences in the virtual-reality world of Second Life.
No avatar is an island
Second Life is a virtual home to many health care sites. One is IBM's Virtual Health Care Island. IBM invites physicians, hospital executives and others to tour the island. An online character named Annastasia Blaisdale (who in real life is AMNews reporter Pamela Lewis Dolan) enters the registration office, then proceeds to create a personal health record.
Online records in an online world
The Annastasia avatar visits the office of a physician, who looks over the PHR and conducts an exam. Online records are confidential in the online world, with the patient indicating who can have access.
This won't hurt a bit
Annastasia stops by the lab for some tests.
E-prescribing, of sorts
Annastasia takes the prescription written by the physician avatar to the pharmacy, where it is filled. But when she tries to buy an OTC cold product, the pharmacist's database flags a potential adverse interaction.
Computer virus?
Annastasia suddenly falls ill. Virtual blood emerges in the background to signal an emergency.
ED, stat
A gurney rushes Annastasia to the emergency department, where physicians are able to learn her medical history through her PHR.