NHS Healthcare Innovations Day - Review

The NHS Healthcare Innovations Day (see original post “NHS Healthcare Innovations Day” Tuesday 10 February 2009) proved to be an interesting experience on a number of levels. While the content of the presentations were both interesting and thought provoking, the pioneering aspect of this meeting was that it could be attended online through Second Life.

The Second Life event drew a respectable audience with over 35 delegates attending the meeting online, set in a bespoke open-air auditorium. Within the Second Life auditorium, meeting delegates could view video screens showing live video feed from the real-life venue as well as other supporting materials they needed to follow the meeting.

There were a few issues with the audio feed during the first session, but the Second Life audience still remained strong, with over 20 delegates present by the time the meeting broke for lunch.

Given that approximately 80 people attended this meeting in person, it is of significance that the online event attracted an additional 25% more delegates, with attendees from the UK, USA and Sweden amongst others.

The Second Life audience wasn’t passive either; like the real-life setting, the Second Life auditorium was equipped for audience voting with some 10 snap polls taken with both audiences able to vote interactively. Delegates attending the meeting through Second Life could also contribute questions for panel discussion.

All this was achieved with relatively low cost, low carbon footprint and a global reach that wouldn't have otherwise been possible.

Much of this could have been achieved with one of a number of web-based conferencing solutions, but there was one significant aspect that was truly unique to the virtual world experience and was the personal highlight of my day: a guided tour of the NHS Second Life training hospital.

Based on a faithful replica of a London hospital, the Second Life training hospital has been constructed to teach familiarity in terms of the layout, equipment and processes the hospital follows. For example, a trainee must follow the correct sequence of operations and be wearing the correct clothing in order to enter an operating theatre. Failure to do so triggers an alarm and instructional training on the correct procedures, right down to video segments showing how to safely open and handle sterile packaging.

Therefore the Second Life training hospital is able to accurately simulate hospital procedures and provide contextual training on how they should be followed, without compromising real-life patient care. However this doesn't just stop at the operating room, but extends to a simulated ward with accompanying equipment and patients. The virtual hospital is even being used to help nurses gain familiarity with a new type of bedside infusion device ahead of its implementation in everyday practice.

What the NHS Healthcare Innovations Day has shown us is that the NHS is already delivering innovative solutions, and has made a success of integrating real life and the virtual world for effective communications, collaboration and training.

Alan

NHS Healthcare Innovations Day

The NHS (with the help of the National Physics Laboratory and Imperial College) has been active in Second Life since late 2007. It therefore comes as no surprise that they will be broadcasting live debates from their Healthcare Innovations day in their Second Life auditorium. The real-world presentations and debates will be held at the BMA House in London on the 11^th February from 10am GMT. The second life auditorium will be operating from 9:30am onwards. You can register as a Second Life attendee (free) and get more information at their booking website http://healthcare-innovation.eventbrite.com/. Of particular interest will be the ability to pose questions in real-life panel discussions and a special Second Life break-out group.

Both myself (Second Life name: AlanTVF Proto) and Chris Degg (Second Life name: ChrisTVF Nightfire) will be attending the Innovations day and I will be blogging the event live.

Alan

Advent of the Online Video

Judson Laipply’s ‘Evolution of Dance’ video has been viewed online over 112 million times – and that’s just on Youtube. ‘Charlie bit my finger’, an innocuous video in which baby Charlie bites his brother’s finger and giggles afterwards, has been viewed 77 million times. And a 5-second clip of a chipmunk with a seemingly startled expression has close to 13 million views.

The list of internet video phenomena is a long and strange one. They all come from the same place: no marketing, no production budget – usually, no planning at all! Beyond the whimsical charm of these videos, and their incredible viewing figures, they speak volumes about what online delivery has done to video in general.

Bandwidth constraints on uploading and downloading mean that a lot of online videos are seen at low quality. Youtube converts all uploaded video files to Flash (.flv) format, which leads to inevitable declines in quality. Yet even with the option to download high quality files, most users wouldn’t have the patience to do this. Quality is not the major concern for the online viewer – it’s all about the idea. A video will rise and fall on the strength of its idea, how funny or bizarre it is and, accordingly, whether it has mass appeal.

Popular video virals also spawn ‘remixes’ and ‘mash ups’ with other topical icons. A little searching reveals an ‘Evolution of Dance’ starring Optimus Prime, of the Transformers franchise, a video entitled ‘Charlie bit Sarah Palin’ and a mash up of the dramatic chipmunk and Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. While these videos haven’t been viewed as many times as the originals, they still reach incredible numbers (the Thriller chipmunk currently has 700,000 views). What this shows is that we are no longer passive viewers, but actively recycle and recreate what we see and enjoy. Video is no longer controlled by a small group of people with extensive training and high-tech equipment.

The media and advertising sectors have recognized the potential gains of online video, particularly the viral. If successful, a video viral will cost very little to make yet have wide exposure. There isn’t even a need to market the video. If they’re working well, virals – true to their name – will spread throughout the Internet all by themselves.

However, before businesses jump on the bandwagon they should consider two important points. First, virals and the potential responses to them are not especially open to being commercialised. Many have a subversive tone, inappropriate for broadcasting corporate messages. Indeed, reactions to an ‘Evolution of Dance’ sponsored by Pepsi would probably be negative. Furthermore, if a corporate-sponsored viral is unleashed, the creators should have every expectation that it will be warped by viewers – perhaps even turned against them.

Second, it is very difficult to predict which ideas will take off. The successful virals have the fascinating effect of snowballing – eventually their attraction becomes the fact they’ve been viewed so many times. It’s an online version of our natural instinct to be drawn to the crowd surrounding a street performer – we reason that if something is of that much interest, it must be important to us too. In theory, any video could begin to snowball – there is no sure-fire hit.

Considering Youtube has only been around since 2005, it is hard to imagine what video and its delivery will look like in five, ten… twenty years’ time. I can’t wait to see the ‘Evolution of Video’ viral on the Youtube of the future.

Tom