Hello world! I’m back from a digital detox and ready to rejoin the world of Social Media again. This first blog post is a transcript of the second episode of Curistica, which I posted today. There will be more blogging, tweeting, and podcasting ahead, but for now I’m dropping the same content three ways. Do let me know if that works for you! Welcome to episode two of Curistica – adventures in digital health! My name is Dr Keith Grimes, I’m a GP, Geek, Gamer, and your host for this podcast which looks at the fascinating world of Digital Health. If you’re wondering what Digital Health is, you might want to listen to Episode one, but if you’re as time-pressured and excitable as me, let’s re-up the definition. Paul Sonnier, curator of the Digital Health group on LinkedIN, defines Digtial Health as: “…the convergence of the digital and genomic revolutions with health, healthcare, living, and society” That’s a broad and interesting view, particularly as it includes genomics. Why genomics? Simply put, DNA is a digital molecule – instead of the base-2 of computers, life is written in the base-4 of Adenosine, Guanine, Thymine and Cytosine. My more practical, applied definition of Digital Health is taking the  existing technologies I use in everyday life, and not leaving them at the door when I get to work. Technologies such as smart phones, voice interfaces, machine learning and chat-bots, and virtual and augmented reality. Today, I’ll be talking Virtual Reality, or VR. VR is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment and placing the user into the experience, allowing them to interact with it (You know, you’ve probably seen it already. Headsets and headphones on, people gazing around them open mouthed and grabbing at objects that aren’t there) I’ve been excited by the potential of VR since I first experienced it in the early 1990’s. As you’ll hear in this podcast, many people were, but it’s taken the best part of 25 years to practically realise this vision The talk you’re about to hear is one that I’ve given to Digital Health:London, and Health XL in San Diego. In it I describe the five ways of clinical VR ;The five main categories which I think VR can be used in healthcare. I developed this idea from my exploration of the field, and through discussion with members of my facebook group ‘VR Doctors’. If you want to know more and perhaps join the community, I’d be delighted to see you online. I’ll be giving the links to VR Doctors, as well as many of the people and companies I mention on this podcast, in the shownotes. Without further delay, lets get going with episode 2 of Curistica – Adventures in Digital Health. Lets hear about the five ways of clinical VR. 25 years ago I fell in love with Virtual Reality. I wasn’t the only one. I have a book from the time, written by Howard Rheingold, and the cover quotes give a good idea about the state of the hype. Douglas Adams – Author of Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy said: “There are those who think that ‘VR’ may be the most important development since man first chipped flint, and there are those who don’t know what it is yet” If you look at the back, we have Arthur C Clarke – Author of 2001, creator of HAL, and the mind behind geostationary comms satellite: “VR won’t merely replace. TV, it will eat it alive” I felt the same, and I wasn’t the only one. Many people believed this hype, and there was an explosion of ideas about how VR could change the world – entertainment, industry, the arts, education and medicine. There was a huge interest, but it turns out that VR was writing cheques it couldn’t cash. It was actually kind of awful. So, shortly after being seduced by the idea of VR…the reality broke my heart. But the revolutionary

Digital technology is radically transforming how we deliver healthcare. Join me, Dr Keith Grimes – Geek, Gamer, and General Practitioner, as I share the stories of the people I’ve met as I explore this incredible and vibrant new discipline in Medicine. This first episode features Nick Peres, founder of PatientVR.co.uk. Nick is using 360 video and low-cost headsets to deliver radically new perspectives for healthcare workers learning their trade, by putting them in the shoes of their patients.