With the release of Epic’s One Virtual System Worldwide at HIMSS 2018, awareness of the healthcare needs of digital avatars has been growing. Whether it’s a plasma burn, zombie bite, or giant broadsword wound, online trauma can make us feel almost as bad as an injury in real life.

Epic’s Ready Surgeon One initiative aims to fill this need by allowing surgeons to don VR headsets and perform pro-bono virtual surgeries in a lifelike virtual operating room. “I used to be an adventurer,” said one patient, “until a battle axe practically cut me in half. Ready Surgeon One matched me with a skilled surgeon who put me back together and got me back into the game.”

Several benefits were observed during the recently-completed beta phase:

• Time savings: Much faster than re-creating or manually healing an avatar.
• Physician empowerment: Laws of physics need not apply here.
• Provider satisfaction: It’s an ideal world, so there are no regulatory requirements.
• Surgical fellowship optional: Anyone can be a surgeon – an EMT, a primary care doc, or an adventurous social worker.

An Epic spokesman said in an early-morning tweet, “Ready Surgeon One set out to help simulated online entities avoid game over.” He continued “Now, we’re seeing better care for the avatar, better health for the general population of avatars, and lower overall cost for avatar care – achieving the Triple Aim for the avatar community.”