Metaverse and Immersive Technologies: Redefining the Future of Healthcare: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: The rapid emergence of the metaverse, defined as an integrated and persistent three-dimensional virtual ecosystem that incorporates immersive enabling technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) alongside artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), is redefining opportunities in healthcare provision, medical education, and patient engagement. Extending beyond telemedicine, it offers transformative potential for personalized, equitable, and sustainable medical services. This scoping review synthesizes current evidence on applications, benefits, barriers, and strategies for integrating immersive technologies into healthcare. METHODS: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 guidelines, a comprehensive search was conducted in June 2024 across PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, and DOAJ using Medical Subject Headings, Embase Tree terms, and free-text keywords, combined with Boolean operators and manual reference checks. Eligible publications included empirical studies, systematic and scoping reviews, meta-analyses, conceptual frameworks, and implementation reports, published from 1994 onward in English. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts, and full texts. Data were extracted using a structured form and thematically synthesized to map applications, benefits, and implementation barriers of metaverse technologies in healthcare. RESULTS: From 3,542 records, 50 studies met the inclusion criteria. Evidence indicates that metaverse technologies can enhance healthcare provision via immersive telepresence consultations, AI-driven decision support, blockchain-enabled secure data handling, and integration with wearable devices. In education, VR, AR, and MR improved anatomical comprehension, procedural accuracy, clinical reasoning, and learner confidence. In patient care and rehabilitation, immersive tools reduced pain, enhanced neurorehabilitation and post-stroke recovery, lowered pre-operative anxiety, and improved chronic disease management and geriatric wellbeing. Barriers to adoption included high infrastructure costs, interoperability gaps, unequal technology access, and ethical issues concerning privacy, consent, and equity. Proposed solutions emphasized open technical standards, infrastructure investment, culturally adaptive design, and integration within hybrid care models. CONCLUSIONS: The metaverse is moving from conceptual innovation to practical application, showing measurable value across healthcare delivery, education, and patient care. Sustainable, equitable integration will depend on overcoming technical, economic, and ethical challenges while embedding immersive technologies into existing health systems to complement, rather than replace, physical care.