One of the enduring legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic is our increased dependence on technology. With telemedicine and video meetings now more commonplace in ophthalmology, can you imagine your life now without Zoom, Skype or online webinars?

While the ophthalmology industry has more or less gotten back to normal after the pandemic, with face-to-face conferences back in full swing across the globe, online meetings and learning are still here. Doctors can attend more meetings thanks to virtual platforms, and it’s easier than ever to learn new skills and best practices.

However, despite all these improvements, can this technology replace the human touch? 

THE REEMERGENCE OF LIVE MEETINGS

As soon as we emerged from the pandemic and people were able to attend “real world,” face-to-face meetings and conferences, it became clear that nothing could fully replace the traditional means of meeting people and networking, despite all the benefits of going online.

According to Debra Rosencrance, the vice president of meetings and exhibits at the AAO, event attendees believe the real-world experience still trumps anything technology can offer.

“We’ve noticed at our recent in-person meetings how much people enjoy just being together,” Ms. Rosencrance says. “While virtual meeting technology provides the opportunity to see and hear great content, networking is just not the same online as it is in person. That includes being able to walk the exhibit floor and experience the new technology.”  

COULD THE METAVERSE PROVIDE AN IMPROVED EXPERIENCE?

The purported successor to telemedicine and teleconferencing, the metaverse aims to mimic the advantages and experience of in-person meetings.

The term “metaverse,” first coined by Neal Stephenson in his science fiction book “Snow Crash,” refers to a universal, immersive virtual world. It’s the next generation of the internet, based on a network of interconnected virtual experiences that combine the virtual and physical worlds, providing new ways of working, learning and socializing, according to the article “Metaverse in ophthalmology: The convergence of virtual and physical space in eye care,” by David Benet and Oscar J. Pellicer-Valero (http://tinyurl.com/3ucmzffu). 

The idea of replacing Zoom and other video call platforms for long-distance networking and socializing could prove popular. Metaverse advocates believe that such platforms can support more appealing online interactions due to the immersive virtual environment. Instead of nodding one’s way through a webcam, you would be able to shake your interlocutor’s hand via your virtual avatar, proceed to attend an online lecture with other attendees and then grab a “coffee” together afterward.

Steve Houston, MD, is a vitreoretinal surgeon and co-founder of MetaMed, a medical and education technology company focused on providing metaverse-based services to the health-care industry. “Some people ask, ‘Well, how different can the metaverse be compared to a regular Zoom or Google call?’ When they experience it, however, and get that feeling of walking around a 3D environment, space, audio, etc, it’s so much better, something you don’t get with a flat-screen TV,” Dr. Houston says. “Once you get people into the metaverse, they embrace it.” 

To launch his company, Dr. Houston drew on his experience working with advanced technology in ophthalmology and in other industries, including blockchain and cryptocurrencies. He believes that the metaverse can provide the next evolution in online meetings, providing a much-improved experience for the user to complement real-world events rather than replace them.

“We don’t see the metaverse as a replacement for in-person conversations; that’s never been our goal,” Dr. Houston says. “What we want is to provide a hybrid aspect to meetings. Being face-to-face is the best way for us to connect with one another, but we’ve also seen conference attendance rates go way down; they’re financially and time-intensive.” 

Dr. Houston says MetaMed is working with a number of associations and societies, like the Retina World Congress, to support this hybrid format. “We’re not going to replace in-person meetings, but we can make online meetings much better. Attendees won’t just consume content as they do now — they’ll be able to actively participate.”  

IS OPHTHALMOLOGY READY FOR THE METAVERSE? 

The ASCRS hosts one of the largest annual conferences in the industry. Its yearly conference accounted for 65% of the organization’s revenue pre-2020, a figure that disappeared overnight as the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns took effect. Something had to be done to keep the organization viable in the new era. This drove its executive director, Steve Speares, to ensure his organization became one of the earliest adopters of telemedicine and teleconferencing technology. ASCRS’ physical 17,000-square-foot office was scrapped altogether, and anything else that could go virtual went virtual. Three years on, ASCRS has learned from the experience, enjoying the benefits but also recognizing some shortcomings.

“Financially, it was a good move for the ASCRS, and we’ve been able to achieve more since,” Mr. Speares says. “Having a large office space had zero impact on our mission, and it freed us up to focus on providing more educational content.” 

However, Mr. Speares says the experience also demonstrated the limitations of the virtual world. “There is plenty of research on education via screen and in person, and the evidence is overwhelming; the latter is just not the same. Metaverse technology is interesting, and the graphics, avatars, etc, are impressive, but what are you watching it on? If the screen quality is poor, it’s not the same experience, and if you’re in an environment that’s prone to distraction, like a clinic or hospital, you won’t be engaged.”

Still, Mr. Speares isn’t entirely opposed to the metaverse, merely its current implementation. As an organization with four generations of membership with four distinct ways of absorbing and learning material, he says ASCRS is open to new technology. In particular, Gen Z engages well with virtual interactions.

While the metaverse won’t herald a sea change in meetings, Mr. Speares says it could help to supplement live meetings in time. 

“There will be a metaverse component in ASCRS in the future, and the technology could certainly help to improve or replace small-scale meetings,” he says. “When you have so many meetings, the quality can get diluted, but it can’t replace the spark of face-to-face meetings.”  OM