Metaverse medicine and innovation in respiratory education: from the classroom to immersive clinical training

Medical education is moving beyond a model dominated by classroom teaching and opportunistic bedside exposure toward one characterized by contextualization, interactivity, continuity, and competency-based learning, driven by the rapid development of extended reality, artificial intelligence, digital humans, virtual patients, digital twins, and the Internet of Medical Things. Metaverse medicine should not be understood as a single device or software platform; rather, it represents an integrated educational and clinical ecosystem built on immersive interaction, virtual-real fusion, real-time connectivity, and data-driven learning. Respiratory education is particularly well suited to this transformation because it involves complex knowledge structures, dynamic monitoring, procedure-intensive training, and strong reliance on teamwork and workflow coordination. Current evidence suggests that XR/VR/AR, virtual patients, simulation-based education, and large language model-assisted teaching can improve knowledge acquisition, procedural performance, learner engagement, and clinical reasoning, although stronger evidence is still needed regarding long-term transfer, real-world clinical outcomes, and cost-effectiveness. In respiratory education, digital human teachers, virtual cases, virtual wards, bronchoscopy and EBUS simulation, immersive training for respiratory failure recognition, and mechanical ventilation education appear to be the most practice-relevant and immediately actionable scenarios. In parallel, concepts proposed by Professor Chunxue Bai’s team—including metaverse medicine, medical GPT, and BAIMGPT—provide an important localized theoretical foundation and implementation pathway for the intelligent upgrading of respiratory education in China. This review summarizes the theoretical basis, major application scenarios, educational value, practical challenges, and implementation strategies of metaverse medicine in respiratory education, with the aim of informing future educational reform and talent development in respiratory medicine.

Key Words: metaverse medicine; respiratory education; digital human teacher; virtual case; virtual ward; immersive clinical training; BAIMGPT