ReviewInternational journal of preventive medicine2026
Metaverse and Immersive Technologies: Redefining the Future of Healthcare: A Scoping Review.
Review in International journal of preventive medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The rapid emergence of the metaverse, defined as an integrated and persistent three-dimensional virtual ecosystem that incorporates immersive enabling technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) alongside artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), is redefining opportunities in healthcare provision, medical education, and patient engagement. Extending beyond telemedicine, it offers transformative potential for personalized, equitable, and sustainable medical services. This scoping review synthesizes current evidence on applications, benefits, barriers, and strategies for integrating immersive technologies into healthcare. Methods: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 guidelines, a comprehensive search was conducted in June 2024 across PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, and DOAJ using Medical Subject Headings, Embase Tree terms, and free-text keywords, combined with Boolean operators and manual reference checks. Eligible publications included empirical studies, systematic and scoping reviews, meta-analyses, conceptual frameworks, and implementation reports, published from 1994 onward in English. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts, and full texts. Data were extracted using a structured form and thematically synthesized to map applications, benefits, and implementation barriers of metaverse technologies in healthcare. Results: From 3,542 records, 50 studies met the inclusion criteria. Evidence indicates that metaverse technologies can enhance healthcare provision via immersive telepresence consultations, AI-driven decision support, blockchain-enabled secure data handling, and integration with wearable devices. In education, VR, AR, and MR improved anatomical comprehension, procedural accuracy, clinical reasoning, and learner confidence. In patient care and rehabilitation, immersive tools reduced pain, enhanced neurorehabilitation and post-stroke recovery, lowered pre-operative anxiety, and improved chronic disease management and geriatric wellbeing. Barriers to adoption included high infrastructure costs, interoperability gaps, unequal technology access, and ethical issues concerning privacy, consent, and equity. Proposed solutions emphasized open technical standards, infrastructure investment, culturally adaptive design, and integration within hybrid care models. Conclusions: The metaverse is moving from conceptual innovation to practical application, showing measurable value across healthcare delivery, education, and patient care. Sustainable, equitable integration will depend on overcoming technical, economic, and ethical challenges while embedding immersive technologies into existing health systems to complement, rather than replace, physical care.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.