Thumbay Group is Transforming Healthcare on the Metaverse

Gulf Medical University the first to adopt Metaverse and Fees payments in Crypto Currencies. First Virtual Hospital on Metaverse to Interact with Patients and Improve patient experience. First Yoga Studio and Fitness Studio on Metaverse providing fitness programs, Yoga for metaverse users.

DR THUMBAY MOIDEEN

FOUNDER PRESIDENT, THUMBAY GROUP

The metaverse has already gained momentum with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, gaming, and more, but now, healthcare industry leader Thumbay Group is taking its pioneering role in the region to the next level with futuristic and cutting-edge facilities across education, healthcare, and fitness on the metaverse. The term metaverse is a portmanteau of ‘meta’ and ‘universe’ which originated in Snow Crash, the 1992 science fiction novel. With metaverse development often linked to advancing virtual reality technology due to increasing demands for immersion, Thumbay Group is set to metamorphosize the way we look at healthcare with a first-of-its-kind virtual hospital, virtual university, and wellness studio; all on the metaverse.

Aligned with Dubai’s Metaverse Strategy At the inaugural Dubai Metaverse Assembly, organized by the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation, stated the metaverse would shape a new digital future for humanity. “We seek to provide a global platform for generating metaverse solutions for global challenges,” His Highness said. “We are constantly working to foster the development of technological tools and applications to raise the community’s quality of life. In the coming years, the metaverse will shape a new digital future for humanity, and Dubai will consolidate its status as a testbed for innovation in this emerging technology.” The Assembly is the first event resulting from implementing the Dubai Metaverse Strategy approved by High Highness Sheikh Hamdan in July. Aiming to turn Dubai into one of the world’s top 10 metaverse economies, the strategy strives to add $4 billion to Dubai’s GDP, attract 1,000 companies specialized in blockchain and metaverse technologies, and to support 40,000 virtual jobs by 2030.

With the UAE leadership's commitment to progression and innovation in blockchain and digital transformation evidenced by the key strategies undertaken towards the safety, transparency, and regulation of digital assets and blockchain, Dr. Thumbay Moideen; Founder and President of Thumbay Group explains that the UAE’s healthcare industry has been early adopters of technology for patient education, surgery, mental health, treatment, and more. “It aligns with the UAE’s visionary leaders’ strategy to transform the services toward the digital world and artificial intelligence, to enhance the country’s leading role in the field of healthcare globally and achieve the vision towards providing an advanced model of healthcare with best-in-class international standards.”

Creating a seamless patient experience As Thumbay Group is launching the UAE’s first hospital in the metaverse, this virtual hospital will include consultation by avatar for patients. Dr. Moideen reveals that they have hired a firm to train all their doctors on how to deal with patients in the metaverse. “Also, we are integrating artificial intelligence into the hospital’s systems where cameras will detect the patient’s car number plate and then their face when they enter the hospital,” he says, for instance, when a patient arrives at the reception, the file will already be open with the initial process of insurance and identification eliminated. Even in the pharmacy, cameras will recognize the patient’s face and the system will indicate to the pharmacist that the patient has come to collect medicine.

Initiatives of the future With multiple noteworthy firsts, Gulf Medical University is the first to adopt metaverse and fees payments in crypto currencies and is the first virtual hospital on the metaverse to interact with patients and improve the patient experience. And always ahead of steering wellness initiatives and promoting fitness in the region, Thumbay Group is also launching its first yoga studio and fitness studio on the metaverse providing holistic, interactive programs to boost the fitness quotient of metaverse users. For Thumbay Group’s Healthcare Division, the metaverse represents the second coming of the internet, enriched, and engineered with the elements of hyper connectivity, augmented and virtual reality and artificial intelligence. The convergence of these technologies will potentially empower healthcare professionals to provide highly integrated and individualized care. “For our brand, ‘Growth Through Innovation’, has always been a driving force, and we hope to create a winning metaverse solution that can contribute in more impactful ways to our industry and the UAE community,” reveals Dr. Moideen.

Multiple firsts in the region Thumbay Group’s firstof-its-kind innovative full-fledged virtual hospital is to be built in a multi-phased project on metaverse platform providing patients with an immersive experience in healthcare. Starting from their Patient Experience center on the metaverse, there is also a complete walkthrough of the hospital and services, tele-consultation, virtual clinics with multiple doctors for consultation, and option for a second opinion from additional doctors’, not to mention avatars in local language and dress to welcome patients in the Medical Tourism department, as well as first-aid and preventive health programs using AR/ VR and AI programs to educate patients and suggest treatment plans.

The future is now Metaverse, explains Dr. Moideen, is effectively the next step of the internet, which will potentially take advantage of AI, AR, VR, and the ever-increasing connectivity to create online environments that are more immersive, experiential, and interactive than what is available today. “Swift information sharing between clinicians, better monitoring of patient’s activity, among others will assist in faster diagnosis and treatment of illnesses,” he says, with many aspects of prompter healthcare delivery will be created in the metaverse. Essentially, the phenomenal technological penetration in the healthcare sector by Thumbay Group has made it evident that metaverse will become an integral aspect of healthcare.

Starting the process Thumbay Group’s pioneering role in the region has led to create something uniquely futuristic with advanced facilities in education, healthcare, and fitness. It is the first such project in the region that has put a road map for the next two years for individuals to access services on the metaverse. Gulf Medical University will educate new applicants with a course on the interactive way on the metaverse for choosing the right health professions as well as to tour both the university and the labs on the metaverse. Using their crypto wallets, students can enroll in the courses as well as pay their fees. Moreover, the admissions process becomes simplified as students can view the facilities and the list of courses offered by the university, enter the admissions office, and much more.

Fitness on the metaverse Taking the engagement to the next level on the metaverse, the Body and Soul Wellness Studio will offer their fitness programs in the metaverse, alongside a virtual fitness studio, and a yoga training module with poses demonstrated on the metaverse. Dr. Moideen explains, “We are very excited to take up these initiatives and align with the developments of the future and explore all opportunities to develop our core business in education, healthcare, research and wellness domains.”

For long-term patients’ Thumbay Group is introducing AR & VR technology for longterm care patients who are bed-ridden and paralyzed in hospitals for six months or more; Dr. Moideen explains that the metaverse hospital would provide services tailored to patients wherein patients can virtually interact with environments outside the hospital. He adds, “For instance, bedridden patients from foreign countries could leverage this technology to visit their faraway homes. Several other features will be added too, for instance, we plan to integrate artificial intelligence capabilities that can potentially have a feature which recognizes each patient’s face. AI would further enable the hospital to increase its knowledge of each patient’s needs, which would allow them to record patient information for future references, too.” H