Virtual Medical Dangers of Web 2.0

Thought provoking post by Bertalan Mesko at ScienceRoll on one of the dangers of web 2.0. Bertalan is a Hungarian medical student who plans to become a clinical geneticist and specialize in personalized genomics.

Bertalan highlights a danger of virtual medicine and gives us a glimpse at what might be the reality of the future as real and artificial life start to merge and blend. His post raises practical implications regarding the potential liability of a health care professional offering artificial (but real) advice online. The post also highlights to potential of the virtual world for training.

I've not spent anytime understanding what happens in Second Life and have only a superficial view of what it is and how it works. For those who know even less - it is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its residents. There is a vibrant virtual community (including health care and medicine) growing that most don't even know about.