The Uses of Second Life in Doctor-Patient Relationships

I must first say my experience with Second Life is limited to a health informatics class I am currently 

taking : The Internet and the Future of Patient Care.  Learning the uses of Second Life is one part of the class.  As required for the class, I opened a Second Life account and created an avatar (animated character). Since I am female, I chose a female avatar.  You may be thinking "duh, of course you would choose a female avatar".   Not so fast.  You can choose to be whatever you want and apparently many are selecting to be the "not so obvious".  I was given maybe a handful of female avatars to select from.  All of the female "default"avatars have sexual undertones (for example bulging breasts and/or unprofessional attire). My brief attempt to change my outfit when I went "shopping" for new clothes resulted in several "party attire" outfits to choose from.  Maybe there were more to choose from but I did not find any professional attire readily available.  I will admit that I like contemporary stylish clothes but I believe you have to carefully select when and where to wear them.  My account is free and perhaps if I was willing to pay, I would have had more female avatars and clothes to select from (hopefully more professional appearing).

 I do not consider myself a computer geek but I think I do a pretty good job of using a computer in my everyday life.  In order for a patient or physician to effectively use Second Life, s/he must both be intuitive with a natural affinity for computer/software technology and its uses, aka computer geek.  I did not find Second Life to be intuitive.  Second Life requires patience as you learn to move your avatar in and around Second Life.  

My knee-jerk reaction to Second Life as a whole is that it is a great place to escape from reality. That said and from a psychosocial standpoint, I think it could be difficult forming an effective patient-doctor relationship.  If I'm walking around big-breasted while communicating with my physician who may look like someone from Star Wars wearing a cowboy hat or boots, how could we each be taken seriously?  On the other hand, most individuals are more apt to "speak out" when not face-to-face and therefore may be more forthcoming with their psychosocial issues.  If this is the case, then I do see some benefit although this same benefit could be achieved with "good old-fashioned" e-mail and without the fancy work of manipulating avatars.  In an ideal world, we are all open-minded individuals and therefore it does not matter what you like but unfortunately this is not the case.  We are quick to judge by what we see.  As the old saying goes, "first impression is the last impression".  If I decided right now to establish a Second Life relationship with one of my patients, I would not feel comfortable with my avatar.  I do not like how I am represented.  I think face-to face on the internet via telemedicine and/or e-mail is the way to go for now.  You can upload patient education videos for patients to review without the need for avatars.  Again, I am someone speaking with very limited Second Life experience.