ABSTRACT
The advancement of digital transformation in virtual healthcare technologies have increased exponentially, creating a diverse range of state-of-The-Art devices and software to optimize the revealed limitations within the healthcare industry. The recent trends in virtual healthcare was enhanced during COVID-19 pandemic which fostered the development of metaverse, a virtual space that forms digital identities and interfaces consisting of an interconnected network of digital devices. Metaverse can act as multi-scale layer of advanced computer-human interaction and can provide new opportunities for digitalized healthcare system. It can provide a wide range of assistance through medical examinations, meetings regarding mental well-being, and clinical appointments. Since the patient medical data is fully digitalized, metaverse offers a space in which artificial intelligence and augmented reality-Assisted telehealth can function optimally. The accurate medical data provided by the wearable biomedical devices with the integration of metaverse and augmented reality technologies is becoming the efficient way of the telemedicine approach. While the digitalization of healthcare system within metaverse can ease the burden on conventional healthcare, the security of digital patient medical data becomes one of the main concerns for the proposed metaverse implementations. In this study, several aspects of the proposed implementation process of the embedded Esantem smart healthcare system in the metaverse, including the adaptations of conventional healthcare in metaverse, the opportunities for advanced human-computer interaction, and the handling of wearable biomedical device medical data and its security in a digital environment are examined. In addition, the main limitations against the development of such an implementation are unveiled with possible solutions such as blockchain for the security of patient data for future research directions. © 2022 IEEE.