Life sciences leaders are increasingly embracing the features and opportunities in the metaverse, according to a new report out of Accenture.

The Life Sciences Technology Vision 2022 report takes a look at what has been dubbed the particular “metaverse continuum, ” defined as a range of “digitally-enhanced worlds, realities and business models” that will “revolutionize life and enterprise. ” These evolving technologies include blockchain, artificial intelligence, non-fungible tokens and smart devices, among others.

The statement found that 85% of biopharma execs expect the metaverse to have a positive impact on the industry. More than 90% of leaders also noted that their company will be “pivoting” in response to the big changes the particular metaverse is bringing, while 97% said that AI is becoming pervasive among their businesses.

“The evolution of this year’s report is a culmination of recent trends we’ve called out that we’re describing as the metaverse continuum, ” Shalu Chadha , global life sciences technology lead at Accenture, said. “We also looked at biopharma and medtech clients independently reflecting – polling over 100 executives across eight countries on what that metaverse continuum looks like. ”

Importantly, Chadha added that the metaverse procession also involves an individual’s “ability to participate in a persistent shared experience spanning the spectrum associated with real world plus the fully virtual. ”

She pointed to an example of that will – a metaverse idea known as the ‘Meta Tumor Board, ’ which would involve bringing together like-minded HCPs and other medical professionals to discuss cancer cases and figure out the best course of action for an individual patient’s treatment.

“What would it be like if they could all come together [for a meeting] without stepping away from their home office or needing to travel? ” Chadha asked. “More importantly, each of them would possess access to patient information, images and blood tests, all made available within a secure ability. ”

A ‘Meta Tumor Board’ would be beneficial for patients, too, based to the particular study, because patient avatars could join in on meetings to better understand their own care journey. Chadhu believes these types of initiatives could ultimately accelerate the speed to drug discovery. She says these innovations can “make it possible in places that never happened before, ” due in order to the culmination of various technologies like augmented reality or virtual reality.

The particular report honed in upon four technology trends that this researchers consider top-of-mind in the metaverse continuum.  

The first is WebMe, the platform that will transforms data ownership amongst individuals. The future will likely entail new digital devices linked to daily at-home objects that are also connected to the metaverse and provide health data.

The second feature is Programmable World, the idea of technology being linked to physical environments – or programming the physical environment. That includes AR, 5G, ambient computing and 3D printing.  

The particular third aspect is Unreal, which entails synthetic information, rather than real-world data, being used in order to define AI models. “This realistic (yet unreal) data can be shared, maintaining the same statistical properties whilst protecting confidentiality and privacy, ” the particular authors note.

Finally, Computing the Impossible refers to brand new quantum computing machines emerging. New, higher levels of computational power can accelerate plus transform R& D processes.

But the major takeaway concluding the report is that the authors expect the metaverse to expand and advance quickly – plus believe it’s something companies will need to capitalize on sooner than later: “Companies need to act now or find themselves operating in worlds designed by, and for, someone else, ” the report states.

“Will it become flawed and evolving? Absolutely, ” Chadhu said. “But do you want in order to see the metaverse world defined in front of you, or even do you want to actually be part of defining the rules and determining what world you want to play in and how? The question is the particular ‘if and exactly how, ’ instead of whether the metaverse will be here to stay. ”