Leslie Saxon stands in the virtual doctor photo tent at the Institute of Creative Technologies. (Photo/Eddie Sakaki)
In 2026, going to the doctor might be as easy as opening an app.
At least, that’s what cardiologist Leslie Saxon hopes.
Saxon, the founder of the USC Center for Body Computing, is moving toward that reality with her newest endeavor — the Virtual Care Clinic.
Scientists at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies recently created a virtual avatar of Saxon — who gestures, furrows her eyebrows and talks just like the doctor herself.
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Dean Rohit Varma and Leslie Saxon as virtual doctor avatars (Rendering/Courtesy of Keck School of Medicine of USC)
One aspect of the clinic is the DocOn app, which is in the development stage — and needs to go through some regulatory approvals till it is available to the public — but the goal is to create avatars for experts and researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Saxon said the clinic is just one step in the advancement to a more technology-connected health care system.
“We think that technology has advanced to the point it’s going to disrupt something as complicated as health care,” Saxon said. “Most of the health care delivery in the U.S. and globally will be delivered over a digital platform, meaning not in person.”
Data for your doctor
To visualize this new future, imagine that your smartphone is picking up even more data than it is now — knowing what you ate for dinner, your exercise routine and your family medical history.
All that data could be turned over to your doctor — who could analyze it to see the transition from health to disease.
“In a way, what we’re doing with the virtual care clinic is we’re developing the operating system for health care,” she said.
Right now, the public can get a sneak peek of the technology through videos put out by the center.
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Source: Haptic