3D Virtual Worlds for Health and Healthcare

The JVWR, Volume 2, No. 2

Published: August 1, 2009


The editorial team for this issue includes:

Maged N. Kamel Boulos, University of Plymouth, UK
Maria Toro-Troconis, Imperial College London, UK 

Though Second Life has existed since 2002 and there are even other virtual worlds that predate it, most in the health sector are only recently starting to migrate to such platforms, as the technology is gradually maturating and rapidly becoming more affordable and popular. This special issue of JVWR on the theme of ‘3D Virtual Worlds for Health and Healthcare’ provides a good sampler of how healthcare organizations, groups and individuals are currently using virtual worlds such as Second Life(R) and OpenSim-based worlds for a range of clinical and health-related purposes.


Managing Editor Corner

Musings on the State of ‘3-D Virtual Worlds for Health and Healthcare’ in 2009

Maria Toro-Troconis, Maged N. Kamel Boulos

Invited Articles

Virtual Worlds in Health Care Higher Education

Constance M Johnson, Allison A Vorderstrasse, Ryan Shaw

Peer Reviewed Research Papers

The Growth and Direction of Healthcare Support Groups in Virtual Worlds

John Robert Norris

Development of a Virtual Reality Coping Skills Game to Prevent Post-Hospitalization Smoking Relapse in Tobacco Dependent Cancer Patients

Paul Krebs, Jack Burkhalter, Shireen Lewis, Tinesha Hendrickson, Ophelia Chiu, Paul Fearn, Wendy Perchick, Jamie Ostroff

Does this Avatar Make Me Look Fat? Obesity and Interviewing in Second Life

Elizabeth Dean, Sarah Cook, Michael Keating, Joe Murphy

Research Papers

Development and Evaluation of Health and Wellness Exhibits at the Jefferson Occupational Therapy Education Center in Second Life

Susan Toth-Cohen, Therese Gallagher

Research-in-brief papers

Development of Virtual Patient Simulations for Medical Education

Douglas R Danforth, Mike Procter, Richard Chen, Mary Johnson, Robert Heller

“Think Pieces”

Virtual Worlds, Collective Responses and Responsibilities in Health

Rashid M Kashani, Anne Roberts, Ray Jones, Maged N. Kamel Boulos

Pitfalls in 3-D Virtual Worlds Health Project Evaluations: The Trap of Drug-trial-style Media Comparative Studies

Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Inocencio Maramba

Towards a virtual doctor-patient relationship: Understanding virtual patients

Vanessa Gamboa González

Assembled (rush to press papers)

Cultural Identity in Virtual Reality (VR): A Case Study of a Muslim Woman with hijab in Second Life(SL)

Methal Mohammed

Shaping the ‘Public Sphere’ in Second Life: Architectures of the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

Annabel Jane Wharton