bring on the science

Tamin Pechet, who's an EIR here at , pointed me at this Boston Globe article about Second Life. The gist is that a Mass General doctor is going to attempt to reproduce real-world stress reduction therapy sessions via Second Life. As John Lester points out:

This is one of the first attempts to see if Second Life can help people in a scientific, quantifiable way.

Patients are already reaching out to each other through virtual worlds, so understanding the impact is an incredibly important area for research. If virtual worlds allow distance therapy to be effective -- and remember, it need not be as effective as in the real world, just effective enough -- it could open up entirely new connections between doctors and patients.