Okayama University Hospital, through Prof. Joe Hasei and colleagues, has run a metaverse community for paediatric and AYA cancer patients since 2023. The team positions the space as "another ward", a place where patients can meet peers while in hospital or recovering at home. It is hosted on the cluster platform and aims to reduce patients' psychological burden and improve their wellbeing.
The space is used for exchange between patients, conversations with cancer survivors and information from clinicians. Participants can join from a VR headset or from a single tablet, so patients who cannot wear a headset are not excluded. A hospital photo shows a patient, a parent and a ward nursery nurse taking part together in VR headsets at the bedside.
Scale and growth
- In August 2025 the hospital's notice described the community as operating with the cooperation of 20 major cancer-treatment hospitals, including Okayama University Hospital.
- The programme's own crowdfunding-page report of 18 May 2026 counts Fukushima Medical University Hospital as the 32nd participating facility, and further hospitals joined afterwards.
- A June 2026 article on innovatopia reported 21 hospitals taking part. That figure is lower than the programme's own count, and the sources may count hospitals and facilities differently.
- The 40th metaverse exchange session was held in September 2026, with six patients aged 4 to 13 joining from Tochigi, Saga and Nagoya.
Funding
Participating hospitals are supplied with tablets and VR headsets. A 2025 crowdfunding campaign aimed to raise ¥4,560,000 to equip about 20 more facilities. It closed on 30 October 2025 having raised ¥8,669,000 from 403 donors. Research funding is reported to come from the campaign and the Nippon Life Foundation, used to buy headsets and tablets.
The hospital's August 2025 notice describes a Christmas exchange event held in the metaverse the previous year, and the project has also hosted community events such as a nail-tip event in the cluster space.
