Tag: healthcare

Metaverse in Healthcare Market Size Estimated to Reach Nearly $500 Billion by 2033: Report

Metaverse, the virtual universe created by Facebook parent Meta, is yet to take off but the technology is seemingly carving a niche in sensitive sectors like education and healthcare. The global metaverse healthcare market is projected to reach a valuation of nearly $500 billion (roughly Rs. 41,44,020 crore) by 2033. This figure has been estimated by market research firm Spherical Insights, which published its recent report on metaverse’s potential to boom in the healthcare sector in the next nine years. meta

According to the Spherical Insights report, the global metaverse in healthcare market size is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49.3 percent from 2023 to 2033. The report, published last month, said that the worldwide metaverse in healthcare market size was expected to hit $496.26 billion (roughly Rs. 41,12,780 crore) by 2033. The metaverse healthcare market size was estimated at $8.97 billion last year. The report also noted that the Asia Pacific market was expected to grow the fastest during the forecast period.

The integration of metaverse into healthcare studies and research has the potential bring new and collaborative approaches in the sector, the report claimed. Navigating through futuristic surgical training methods and telemedicine can be made visually more explanatory via the metaverse technology.

The metaverse can also help healthcare professionals train and practice their skills in practical augmented and virtual reality sessions. The technology can also go a long way in aiding remote consultation and patient monitoring.

The report attributes the estimated growth to several factors like the increased usage of telemedicine in cases of remote patient consultations and patient monitoring for at-home care recipients and the rise in use of AR and VR technology in hospitals and clinics for surgical procedures. “Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies can enable more realistic virtual appointments, consultations, and examinations will boost the metaverse in healthcare market growth,” it said.

While the report by Spherical Insights estimates the metaverse healthcare sector to boom to a nearly $500 billion market, other market research firms like Towards Healthcare, and Research and Markets put out a more conservative estimate, with projected CAGR of 26.3 percent and 34 percent, respectively. The Tower Healthcare report estimates the metaverse in healthcare market size to cross $81.99 billion by 2032.

Medical companies and brands are already starting to establish themselves in the metaverse to become early adopters of this technology. Back in 2022 for instance, Hyderabad-based Yashoda Hospitals set up an experience zone in the Decentraland metaverse, claiming to become India’s first chain of hospitals to do so.

Built atop blockchain networks, metaverse ecosystems are fully functional virtual environments for people to work together, play games, and socialise as digital avatars from the privacy and comfort of their homes.

As per a report published by research firm InsightAce Analytic in October 2023, the coming together of the metaverse and the education sector is expected to be churning over $102 billion (roughly Rs. 8,48,980 crore) by the year 2031.

Researchers from the sector, however, have advised tech firms to bring their focus on producing affordable and advanced hardware capable of letting people explore the metaverse to its full potential.

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Smartwatches Could Help Detect Emerging Health Problems Using AI, Skin-Like Electronics, Study Shows

Skin-like electronics combined with Artificial Intelligence are being developed by researchers in order to detect potential emergent health concerns. 

The study was published in the journal Matter with the title Intrinsically stretchable neuromorphic devices for on-body processing of health data with artificial intelligence.

Although flexible, wearable electronics are becoming increasingly common, they have yet to realise their full potential. Precision medical sensors that are placed on the skin to do health monitoring and diagnostics could be made possible by this technology in the near future. It’d be like having a cutting-edge medical institution at your disposal at all times.

Such a skin-like device is being developed in a project between the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME). Leading the project is Sihong Wang, assistant professor in UChicago PME with a joint appointment in Argonne’s Nanoscience and Technology division.

Worn routinely, future wearable electronics could potentially detect possible emerging health problems — such as heart disease, cancer or multiple sclerosis — even before obvious symptoms appear. The device could also do a personalized analysis of the tracked health data while minimizing the need for its wireless transmission. “The diagnosis for the same health measurements could differ depending on the person’s age, medical history and other factors,” Wang said. “Such a diagnosis, with health information being continuously gathered over an extended period, is very data intensive.”

Such a device would need to collect and process a vast amount of data, well above what even the best smartwatches can do today. And it would have to do this data crunching with very low power consumption in a very tiny space.

To address that need, the team called upon neuromorphic computing. This AI technology mimics the operation of the brain by training on past data sets and learning from experience. Its advantages include compatibility with stretchable material, lower energy consumption and faster speed than other types of AI.

The other major challenge the team faced was integrating the electronics into a skin-like stretchable material. The key material in any electronic device is a semiconductor. In current rigid electronics used in cell phones and computers, this is normally a solid silicon chip. Stretchable electronics require that the semiconductor be a highly flexible material that is still able to conduct electricity.

The team’s skin-like neuromorphic “chip” consists of a thin film of a plastic semiconductor combined with stretchable gold nanowire electrodes. Even when stretched to twice its normal size, their device functioned as planned without the formation of any cracks.

For one test, the team built an AI device and trained it to distinguish healthy electrocardiogram (ECG) signals from four different signals indicating health problems. After training, the device was more than 95 per cent effective at correctly identifying the ECG signals.

The plastic semiconductor also underwent analysis on beamline 8-ID-E at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne. Exposure to an intense X-ray beam revealed how the molecules that make up the skin-like device material reorganize upon doubling in length. These results provided molecular-level information to better understand the material properties.

“The planned upgrade of the APS will increase the brightness of its X-ray beams by up to 500 times,” said Joe Strzalka, an Argonne physicist. “We look forward to studying the device material under its regular operating conditions, interacting with charged particles and changing electrical potential in its environment. Instead of a snapshot, we’ll have more of a movie of the structural response of the material at the molecular level.” The greater beamline brightness and better detectors will make it possible to measure how soft or hard the material becomes in response to environmental influences.

“While still requiring further development on several fronts, our device could one day be a game changer in which everyone can get their health status in a much more effective and frequent way,” added Wang.

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Healthcare, Logistics to See Most Benefits via Blockchain: Crypto-Centric Venture Firm Cypher

India recently secured the fourth position on the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index compiled by blockchain research firm Chainalysis. These ranks numbered all the countries based on their varied uses of different crypto-services and India outranked US and Russia on the scale that testified to the growing adoption of crypto in the second-most populous nation in the world. UAE-based crypto-centric investment firm Cypher Capital has highlighted that the blockchain tech can bring most benefits to the healthcare and logistics industries of India.

Inside the healthcare sector in India, that is projected to touch $372 billion (roughly Rs. 29,61,473 crore) this year, medical records are centralised to providers.

“This leads to duplicative data and disjointed records across stakeholders. Healthcare providers need to take utmost care in protecting their records from cyber hacks and outages and blockchain can solve this pain point by establishing a trust-based ecosystem that unifies patient data, and maps out the entire patient journey in the country. Moreover, this data would be much more secure as a single authority cannot control it,” Vineet Budki, Managing Partner and CEO, Cypher Capital told Gadgets 360 in an interview.

Since blockchain facilitates record-keeping via a decentralised ledger, India’s logistics sector that balances a market cap of over $250 billion (roughly Rs. 19,90,150 crore), can reduce major clerical errors and blind spots for the logistics sector as well.

“Today, with blockchain, logistics companies can enter into binding agreements using smart contracts, which are traceable and self-governed — removing dependencies on physical paperwork — saving time and administrative costs,” Budki added.

At this point, the Indian crypto community is treading lightly in-terms of pouring investments and building projects in the Web3 space under regulatory uncertainties.

This has, however, not pulled back Indian blockchain and Web3 developers from flocking to other nations in search for opportunities.

“We are seeing a lot of traction coming from Indian start-ups, so talent-wise, it’s growing at a rapid pace. Once the regulation clears out, it will act as a growth catalyst, and this is what entrepreneurs currently need: clarity rather than ambiguity,” Budki noted.

In March 2022, Cypher Capital launched a $100 million (roughly Rs. 800 crore) blockchain fund, out of which, it set aside $40 million (roughly Rs. 320 crore) for Indian crypto and blockchain start-ups.

Cypher Capital is amongst many venture firms that are ready to bet on India’s potential to develop the Web3 sector. These companies have observed previous patterns of how technological adoption unfolded in the country to be sure enough about giving Indians the space to expand work in the Web3 arena.

“We saw when India moved from offline commerce to online commerce. Despite being a laggard in e-commerce, India has now taken a centre-stage. We are still bullish on India and its potential to disrupt this market,” Budki added.

For any sector to show magnitude of expansion, hiring plays a key role.

At present, blockchain developers account for less than 1 percent of the global developer base making it quite difficult for recruiters to hire top talent in this space.

In the coming years, Budki reckons, a lot of talent will migrate from the tech industry to the blockchain space.

“Recruiters need to keep an eye on candidates that are open and enthusiastic about the industry and should even consider candidates that have no prior experience in crypto/blockchain. We are quite early to have blockchain veterans in the space and it is better to hire talent that is willing to learn and grow,” the Cypher Capital chief pointed.

In a new report, KuCoin crypto exchange has claimed that India currently has over 115 million crypto investors, making for 15 percent of its massive population.

The Indian crypto market is expected to reach the valuation of $241 million (roughly Rs. 1,924 crore) by 2030, the same report had claimed.

Unfortunately, India did not make it to the list of countries, that have taken crypto-friendly measures to contribute to the growth of this nascent industry.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article. 

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