Bumrungrad Hospital

No really.... despite appearances, this is a real place - now building a virtual presence in Second Life. When I first noticed the Bumrungrad Hospital sim on the map, I assumed it to be some sort of crudely comical take on med school. Kind of like Animal House for medical students? But as it turns out - there really is a Bumrungrad Hospital.

It's website tells me: "Bumrungrad International is an internationally accredited, multi-specialty hospital located in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. Founded in 1980, today it is the largest private hospital in Southeast Asia with 554 beds and over 30 specialty centers. Bumrungrad offers state-of-the-art diagnostic, therapeutic and intensive care facilities in a one-stop medical center. Bumrungrad serves over a million patients annually. Over 400,000 are internationals. " So that's me put firmly in my place! You live and learn, eh?

The sim is at a very early stage of development. It looks like a solo effort (and I know how long that can take!) and may take quite some time yet before it can be said to be fit to visit. As you might expect, a representation of the hospital seems to be the centrepiece of the build. How much of this is actually going to be of use is anyone's guess. It seems like a lot of effort to build structures (floors, rooms) that no-one is likely to visit - but then, I do recognise the need to show people a digital representation of the atomic building. I recognise it - but I don't always agree with it. But it is too early in the build here to get a sense of what is intended - so I will cut this short.

Here's a couple of snaps that may give you the idea (lots of plywood on show):

The Hospital

Recent weeks have seen a few announcements about things medical in Second Life - basically, companies were using the recent HIMMS'08 healthcare conference as a virtual marketing opportunity, as I posted in this little item. This was in the back of my mind when I was pootling around the North-Eastern corner of the Second Life map - an area rich in academic sites, if you have the patience to look. After a couple of quick "fishing trips" I was about to leave the area when I espied The Hospital. Given its location in the midst of a slew of university and teaching sims, I assumed it would be something educational. And indeed, in one sense, it is - but not in a medical sense.

The sim in question turns out to be the Second Life site for a rather (I will say) exclusive London club. The Hospital, according to their website, is "on the site of an 18th Century hospital in Covent Garden... [and] has evolved into London’s pre-eminent centre for the Creative and Media communities." Somewhere in its 7 floors there's actually TV and music recording studios. Apparently, and slightly bizarrely perhaps, the club is "the vision of Paul G. Allen co-founder of Microsoft and Dave Stewart, musician and producer."

The Second Life version strikes me as a slighty odd beast, and I will explain why in due course. It has been built by London-based virtual world consultancy, Rivers Run Red, and in general looks very smart, making excellent use of textures and lighting effects to convey a strongly immersive 3D impression.

You enter a plain, red brick building and find yourself in some sort of anteroom. If you call the lift, you will be transported to the gallery, which currently houses a Warhol vs Banksy exhibition. In first life, this was held in August'07 - but is still going strong in Second Life. It is an extensive and beautifully detailed exhibition, and well worth the entrance fee. The "shiny floor" effect looks great, too. Returning to the anteroom you can walk down to the restaurant/bar area and a cinema. Comparing the SL versions with the pictures on the website, they look like a more than passable rendering of the originals. Outside, there's a garden area and an outdoor auditorium. However, there are also signs of "temporary dwellings" - a cabin on a hilltop that seems out of place... and more spectacularly, a number of items of furniture and greenery "parked" in mid-air, as if awaiting placement.

While locating the builders, I checked the properties of a couple of benches outside the brick building. As well as identifying the builders as RRR, they also identified their original clients as Vodafone. And this set me thinking. I don't know when this sim came onstream. Is it relatively new (and due for an overhaul at some point)? Does it date back to August, built to coincide with the exhibition in the real Hospital? Re-using stuff is, of course, fine - though I would be inclined to rename the objects in question. But the sim, for all its indoor excellence, looks disjointed and unready in the outdoor areas. Perhaps it was built mainly for machinima and perhaps some hosted events, and really only meant to be seen indoors?

My confusion is compounded by a press statement, which dates from August'07. This states that the sim is the fruit of a partnership between The Hospital and RRR. "The partnership will see both parties cross-marketing each others services with The Hospital offering clients of its Covent Garden base the opportunity to ‘simul-launch’ their products on The Hospital branded island in Second Life developed by Rives Run Red." You can lay hands on a copy of the whole thing here (ignore the date - it's a Word document & it's using a 'today's date' field).

So I'm left wondering: What is the current status of the sim, and of the partnership between these two? Why is the outside relatively cursory, while the inside is rather finely detailed? Is it being rebuilt - or is it just right?

Whatever the answer to these largely rhetorical questions, it's an interesting site. I particularly like the exhibition space, which is both educational and brilliantly executed. Here's a bundle of snaps - but it's better seen in the (virtual) flesh:

Virtual Healthcare and Hospitals

I dunno... you wait months for a virtual health service, then 2 come along at once. In the space of only a couple of days we witnessed press announcements from both IBM and Cisco/Millions of Us, launching healthcare-related sims in Second Life.

I will deal with the IBM one first - since I am clearly not ill enough to gain access to the site in question: IBM Healthcare Island. The island, which debuted at HIMMS'08 healthcare conference, is described in the press release as "a unique, three-dimensional representation of the challenges facing today’s healthcare industry and the role information technology will play in transforming global healthcare-delivery to meet patient needs." It is split into a number of locations, ranging from the patient's home, to clinics, laboratories, hospital and the ER. The main aim is to show the use of Personal Health Records (PHRs), the interactions with Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems and the development of an Electronic Health Record (EHR). I am slashing the description to the bone here - read the extensive press release for more.

Perhaps ironically, given the currently closed status of the island, Dan Pelino, General Manager, IBM Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry says: "The island allows each healthcare stakeholder to envision how the total system can be affected by intercession at each juncture of the healthcare delivery process.” As a 'patient' I'd like to think I count as a 'healthcare stakeholder'. Oh well, in the meantime I will continue to take aspirin and plenty of liquids, while giving some consideration to...

PalomarWest Hospital. Where IBM appear to be using the 3D world to walk us through medical processes and information flows, MOU are using it as a visualisation tool, modelling a hospital that is not due to open in the atomic world until 2011. They have developed the visualisation on behalf of Palomar Pomerado Health and Cisco Systems who, between them, are developing a "hospital of the future" in which state-of-the-art ICT networks and systems will help deliver premium levels of patient care. You can read the press release to glean the features they seek to demonstrate in the virtual world, including "telepresence", robotics and 3D imaging.

The sim itself looks very impressive - though I could not quite get a handle on the scale. Nor could I get a reliable fix on the level of detail. Arriving in the car park, you are presented with the medical centre in all its proposed finery. As this is about visualisation, it should not have surprised me to find that so much of the centre was effectively shut. In large areas I could admire the outside, but not wander around the inside. In fact, I found my route heavily constrained. I could get into the ground floor lobby, and after picking up a RFID tag I should have been able to access treatment facilities. However, it told me these were in use (though I seemed to be the only person on the sim) so I can't comment on these. I may try another time. Incidentally, I was a bit surprised to be told that I needed to have my gall bladder removed - I certainly did not have that in mind when I came to the sim!

There's a couple of movies that talk you through some of the concepts of the hospital, while also promoting the joys of Cisco wifi access. Maybe it was my inability to actually obtain treatment, but I saw none of the features listed in the press release. Perhaps they are still being worked on, since I did notice a basic cube prim on the stairs leading up from the lobby. Oh... it would be nice if the wheelchairs worked too. Overall I liked the sim, and can see that it is a big step ahead of 2D presentations when trying to imagine how the place will look and operate. However, I'm not sure that the press release bears much resemblance. I suppose I'd better go back and get that gall bladder whipped out.

Here's some views of the outside:


The lobby and the basic, cube prim:


A Cisco wifi access point - and and infomercial:


You can find out more about the proposed Palomar Medical Center West here.
You can download a .WMV format video for the virtual hospital here.

Oh...and finally - I couldn't help but notice, in checking through press releases, that Cisco has just established the rather wonderfully entitled Academy of Digital Signage. I dunno... it tickled me, anyway.

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UPDATE: I am given to understand that the IBM Healthcare island should be opening to the general public in a few weeks. So just wrap up warm and avoid chills until then.