Web3 and the Metaverse; just hype or significant opportunities for healthcare?

Matt Webb, Equiti Health's technology advisor, cut through the hype to discuss the opportunities and concerns for the future healthcare technology.

There’s a lot of hype about Web3 and the metaverse, perhaps ever so slightly overshadowed by all the AI hype! All present many opportunities, and for healthcare the implications could be huge.

First, we need to demystify the two terms. Web3 and the metaverse are two different concepts that are often discussed together as both relate to the future of the internet and virtual experiences. It is important to understand that they are different, serve different purposes, and by extension have different implications.

Web3 is more of a catch all term for the next generation of the internet. At its heart is the concept of decentralization. We can think of this as a mesh of nodes of information that can be stored or flow in any direction rather than single point-to-point routes to single servers. Technologies based on this principle such as Blockchain allow transactions to processed across multiple nodes simultaneously and for data to be stored transparently and indefinitely – meaning it is [near] impossible to crack, it cuts out intermediaries (such as banks, or brokers). Security and interactions are handled in a new way – we use wallets to access web3 environments and store currency, and use exchanges to transact. Overlaid onto all of this web3 splits into new versions of browsers, domains, and routes of information access – but also virtual environments based on web3 that we refer to as the metaverse.

The metaverse, is a term used to describe a virtual shared space where people can interact and engage with each other and with virtual objects and experiences. The metaverse is often discussed in the context of augmented and virtual reality technologies, which are expected to play a major role in the development of the metaverse and is often portrayed in the context of social and commerce, as a bit of a social experiment.

While Web3 technologies are an important part of the infrastructure that will enable the metaverse, the two concepts are not the same. Together, Web3 technologies and the metaverse have the potential to fundamentally change the way we use the internet and interact with each other online.

Thinking of Web3 as "a new version of the web" without a contextual application or even vertical to focus on, pushes out thoughts to science fiction, vanity interactions, or superficial experiences. For many industries, it is little more than a 3D social network. Most of the industries investing heavily into this space are doing so because they stand to make a lot of money if they get it right (or lose a lot of money if they are late to the party). AXA investment managers are predicting the metaverse industry to be worth 800Billion Dollars by 2024.

What about the possibilities for healthcare?

Our starting place is a disconnected, siloed and often unconnectable nature of healthcare data. Despite huge advances, technology innovations have largely address relatively narrow and specific needs. This has led to an ever-increasing fragmentation of systems, technologies and apps. Addressing the fundamental issues of fragmentation is often placed into the “it’s too big to deal with” pile.

There are some important advances. Programmes like the NHS's single sign on have paved the way for third parties to integrate with underlying systems. This is significantly important, as historically most healthcare platforms were built and governed by complex monolith systems provided by the world’s largest vendors.

There are some wonderful advances in MedTech particularly in the field of virtual training, tele-surgery and rehab, but these are all based on proven, proprietary tech. There is no doubting these advances are huge leaps forward, but we need to better understand the context of how they might be applied to deliver a more holistic model of healthcare – how might your telemedicine service, augmented reality training or VR rehabilitation simulator be built to support a world where all the information is stored securely and importantly, can be used by others (with the right permissions of course)? This is where instead of Web2 virtual environments are seen as more of a path-to, or steppingstone for what the web3 metaverse might be – with better access, more openness, and ideally interoperability between different “worlds”.

Virtual environments aside, the implications for masses of healthcare professionals, patients, research bodies, Pharma to collectively make use of a system that can access vast amounts of data simultaneously and quickly. Where we the know and trust the provenance of that data and for that data to never get lost is huge!

The implications for Web3 in healthcare are more significant than any other vertical or industry, given the need to interconnect not only technologies provided by large-scale tech companies as well as independent contractors and start-ups, but also research bodies, academia, cutting across health systems, providers, settings and even countries. Bodies such as the MACH alliance are pushing this collaborative and integrated way of working into the mainstream of retail and finance and healthcare needs to look more closely at this way of working.

Web3 technologies, such as blockchain, could potentially be applied to healthcare in a number of ways. For example, a decentralized network could be used to securely store and manage electronic health records (EHRs), giving patients more control over their personal health information, allowing patients to easily access their own health data and share it with their healthcare providers.

Blockchain technology could also be used to facilitate improved secure communication and data sharing between different healthcare providers, enabling better coordination of care which will flow through into improving patient outcomes. There are also potential applications for web3 technologies in areas such as supply chain management, clinical trials, and drug development. This has the potential to improve the accuracy and efficiency as well as improving the quality and accessibility of medical care.

What impact will it have on health equity?

Web3 technologies, also have the potential to advance health equity, facilitating the development of new models of care that are more focused on the needs of underserved communities, such as community-based health networks and other forms of decentralized care, all with accurate, updated and secure information at the point of care. This has the potential to improve access to healthcare for underserved and disadvantaged communities, reduce disparities in health outcomes and improve the quality of care, empowering patients to take a more active role in their own health and healthcare.

Should we be concerned?

However, there are also concerns with the use of web3 technologies in healthcare and one of these is the issue of security and privacy. Because these technologies are relatively new and still evolving, there may be vulnerabilities that have not yet been identified or addressed. For example, a common concern is the idea of data permanence – the immutable ledger, in many cases this is viewed as a good thing- but what if someone made a mistake? What if something appears on a medical record that wasn’t supposed to? There could of course be an update “block” but that wouldn’t remove the existing information. A small price to pay for majority data integrity? The jury is likely to be out on this one for a long time.

Another potential concern is the decentralized nature of these technologies can make it difficult to ensure compliance with existing laws and regulations, and it may be necessary to develop new approaches to regulation and oversight in order to ensure the safe and effective use of these technologies in healthcare. And Regulatory change happens slowly.

Web3 isn’t quite here yet, the idea is, and elements of it have been around for a while. What is clear is that Web3 has the potential to fundamentally change how we provide healthcare and finally solve the long-standing issues of data centralisation, interoperability and fragmentation that has plagued healthcare for decades.