Coming soon to UAE: Hospital, university, fitness studio in the metaverse

Get your VR headsets on and suit up your digital avatars. The UAE is all set to get a university, hospital and a wellness studio in the metaverse.

Thumbay Group has announced plans to set up digital facilities in education, healthcare and fitness. The first such project in the region will see solutions developed within two years that will let customers access services in the metaverse. Users will be able to create their digital avatars, customise them and get services in 25 languages.

Thumbay Group’s phase one of the project will go live by the end of this year.

Virtual hospital

The group will build a “full-fledged” virtual hospital in a multi-phased project. It will feature everything from a patient experience centre to a complete walkthrough of the hospital and services.

Patients and their avatars can get tele-consultation, have multiple doctors’ opinions, interact with customer service avatars ‘dressed’ in local attire speaking several languages and get first-aid and preventive health programmes using AR/VR and AI programmes.

Initially, the Thumbay Virtual Hospital will educate patients with preventive programmes and provide health tips. It will also provide inpatient room experiences for patients needing elective surgeries.

Virtual medical university

The multi-phased project will provide students with an immersive experience in medical education. The Gulf Medical University and its labs will go in the metaverse, giving students the ability to learn in the virtual world, create their avatars, interact with the teaching faculty and other students, and practise skills on virtual patients and in simulated 3D Labs with gamification techniques.

Initially, the Gulf Medical University will educate new applicants on the right health course to choose by offering a tour of its campus in the metaverse. Students can enrol in the courses and pay fees in cryptocurrency.

Getting your avatar ready

To visit the virtual campus of the medical university, students can create a base avatar. They can then customise it by changing the hair colour and skin tone.

The receptionist avatar at the university would greet the students in their native language. The platform will have the ability to auto-identify the language of the students.

They can enter the admission office, where they can have a 10-minute interaction with the counsellor.

Similarly, avatars of patients at the hospital can move to the Marhaba lounge, where they will be briefed about the healthcare services on offer. They will have the provision to view the services offered and its details. A ten-minute interaction session with a doctor from a specific department will be made available for the user, in which they could also schedule a hospital visit.

Virtual wellness studio for real-life fitness

The Body and Soul Wellness Studio will help the community at large to keep pace with their fitness programmes in the metaverse. Avatars will be able to select different sceneries to get motivated for doing their regular exercises.

The virtual fitness studio will be equipped with various exercise routines that users can select. A full body analysis will help the user to select appropriate exercise routines.

Dr Thumbay Moideen, founder and president of the Thumbay Group, said: “We are very excited to take up this initiative and be in line with the developments of the future. We are keen to explore all opportunities to develop our core businesses in education, healthcare, research and wellness domains. Thumbay Medicity is a unique destination and regional hub of futuristic medical education, state-of-the-art healthcare, and cutting-edge research.”

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