PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Mark A Graber AU - Abraham D Graber TI - Black, white or green: ‘race’, gender and avatars within the therapeutic space AID - 10.1136/jmh.2010.005637 DP - 2011 Jun 01 TA - Medical Humanities PG - 9--12 VI - 37 IP - 1 4099 - http://mh.bmj.com/content/37/1/9.short 4100 - http://mh.bmj.com/content/37/1/9.full SO - J Med Humanit2011 Jun 01; 37 AB - Personal identity is critical to provider–patient interactions. Patients and doctors tend to self-select, ideally forming therapeutic units that maximise the patients' benefit. Recently, however, ‘reality’ has changed. The internet and virtual worlds such as Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/) allow models of identity and provider–patient interactions that go beyond the limits of mainstream personal identity. In this paper some of the ethical implications of virtual patient–provider interactions, especially those that have to do with personal identity, are explored.