Globally, 5 Billion people don’t have access to safe surgery due to lack of trained professionals. In the U.S. alone, over $15 billion a year is spent on medical training, but much of that is wasted in antiquated, expensive, and non-repeatable methods which offer students little chance of hands-on practice.

The truth is that the way surgeons are trained
has changed very little over the past 150 years, and much of hands-on practice still relies on using cadavers, which cost $13,000 or more and can only be used to train between 4-6 students. Reusable, synthetic cadaver cost in excess of $40,000.

5 Billion people don’t have access to safe surgery
Share on X

All this adds up to the fact that currently less than 0.5% of the world’s surgeons have access to simulations. Something that FundamentalVR is on a mission to change by democratizing surgical training through low-cost, safe and immersive experiences.

The way surgeons are trained
has changed very little over the past 150 years, and much of hands-on practice still relies on using cadavers
Share on X

Users can feel the movement and interaction of tissue, muscle and bone as they would in an actual procedure
Share on X

Headquartered in London with offices in Boston, the company provides enterprise training solutions to medical device and pharmaceutical companies as well as curriculum-based immersive training experiences to medical institutions, hospitals and learning centers. So far it has raised over $2.6M in funding, capitalizing on the fact that the global MedEd is projected to
reach $38BN by 2024.

Until recently, affordable virtual reality solutions in this area had been limited to game-like experiences without the touch sensation that is so critical in surgical procedures, while current VR haptic solutions that use specialist equipment cost over $100K to purchase and thousands more to maintain, as they require specialist “Sim-Tech” staff and a dedicated space.

The FundamentalVR platform on the other hand, offers subscription licenses starting $350, and the software works in conjunction with any modern PC or laptop, a standard VR headset and two haptic arm devices that can be easily purchased online to conduct procedures.

Users can feel the movement and interaction of tissue, muscle and bone as they would in an actual procedure within a sub millimeter of accuracy of resistance, something that I experienced first-hand when “performing” a procedure at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai earlier this year.

Less than 0.5% of the world’s surgeons have access to simulations
Share on X

Until recently, affordable virtual reality solutions in this area had been limited to game-like experiences without the touch sensation that is so critical in surgical procedures
Share on X

Its proprietary Surgical Haptic Intelligence Engine (SHIE) draws upon an extensive library of tools and tissue variants that mimic real life sensations which were carefully calibrated by a leading team of surgeons. Over two years of development, more than 500 surgeons have tested the system, which constantly adapted around the feedback. Just as pilots train for bird strikes or engine failure, surgeons are confronted with varying scenarios ranging from abnormal anatomy to rare complications that can happen during live procedures, such as unexpected bleeding.

The healthcare sector has been among the earliest adopters of immersive technology, as the benefits – most evident in the ability to train students and allow professionals to hone their skills in a safe and realistic environment – were clearly quantifiable. Which is why the interest they’re attracting from major players in the industry is not really surprising. FundamentalVR have just announced a three-year strategic alliance with the Mayo Clinic, one of the leading academic medical centers in the U.S. This includes a joint development agreement for its Surgical VR Simulator, Fundamental Surgery.

Healthcare has been among the earliest adopters of immersive technology
Share on X

The proof of the pudding lies in whether the use of VR simulations will eventually improve patient outcomes
Share on X

But this will go further than allowing current trainee and qualified surgeons to experience surgical procedures and will include both companies sharing clinical and technical expertise to develop new immersive training products. The objective is to create new simulation content as well as assessment criteria based on the Mayo Clinic’s substantial body of research and in partnership with its surgeons, clinical practitioners, and data scientists.

This agreement will see the two parties collaborating on a range of simulations with an initial focus on the General Surgery area. They will then move into growth areas including robotic and patient specific simulation derived from DiCom (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) data and 3D modeling.

The objective is to create new simulation content as well as assessment criteria based on the Mayo Clinic’s substantial body of research
Share on X

The proof of the pudding, however, lies in whether the use of VR simulations will eventually improve patient outcomes, something that Richard Vincent, FundamentalVR’s CEO believes is possible.

“Our haptic + immersive VR platform has already proven to offer a new way to allow skills development, and we share the belief that the comparative data insight and measurement will have a profoundly positive impact on the wellbeing of people around the world,“ he says.

The platform’s initial training packages are focused on Orthopedic Surgical disciplines including Spinal Pedicle Screw Placement, Posterior Hip Replacement and Total Knee Arthroplasty. Further orthopedic procedures will be added during Q4 2018 with other disciplines, including general surgery and cardiovascular slated for 2019.

This article appeared originally on VRScout

FundamentalVR Partners With Mayo Clinic To Develop Haptic VR Surgery Simulations via @alicebonasio https://t.co/yIIs1cD1IK pic.twitter.com/v07p5OPnPh

— VRScout (@VRScout) November 2, 2018

Want to leverage Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality to take your brand to the next level? Tech Trends offers comprehensive Immersive Technologies Consultancy to help you get there.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Cutting Edge VR appeared first on Tech Trends.

How medical visualization tools enhance learning by reducing the cognitive load on our brains.

Immersive learning technologies are proliferating fast and also growing in popularity, being used not only for entertainment but also in a variety of professional applications.

immersive learning tools provide superior capabilities because they reduce the cognitive load on the learner, and more accurately represent these systems as they truly are
Share on X

Some of the most exciting applications of immersive technology have come in the form of training applications, and the medical sector has been fast to embrace this innovation, recognizing their great potential to improve the quality and quantity of training epochs, reduce training costs and to enhance patient satisfaction. A win-win-win.

Immersive learning technologies are proliferating fast and growing in popularity
Share on X

Broadly speaking, these technologies come in two forms: Augmented Reality (AR) – in which digital information is overlaid onto the learner’s field of view – and Virtual Reality (VR) in which the learner is immersed in a completely new environment.

Some of the most exciting applications of immersive technology have come in the form of training applications
Share on X

In a previous post I discussed the implications of xR for broad-based medical training. In this article, I will focus on the problems surrounding medical visualization. Namely, how do learners best understand and mentally represent complex systems like the brain or the human body? I offer a psychological and brain science perspective and argue that immersive learning tools provide superior capabilities because they reduce the cognitive load on the learner, and more accurately represent these systems as they truly are. If done correctly, this will significantly enhance learning.

Let’s look at the challenges medical students face when learning about the anatomy and physiology of the human body. The human body is a 3-dimensional structure that functions as a dynamic system. The ultimate goal of all medical visualization training is to facilitate the formation of a 3D dynamic mental representation of the human body in the learner’s brain that perfectly mimics the actual form. The best way to achieve this goal is to present the learner with a 3D dynamic visualization tool that perfectly mimics the human form. Unfortunately, most traditional medical visualization tools are textbooks or slide shows that are filled with 2D static images. Thus, the learner must convert a series of 2D static images into a 3D dynamic mental representation in the brain that accurately reflects the human form.

Constructing a 3D dynamic representation from a series of 2D static images requires a huge amount of cognitive effort
Share on X

From a cognitive science perspective, constructing a 3D dynamic representation from a series of 2D static images requires a huge amount of cognitive effort. First, you have to hold a mental representation of a series of 2D static images in your short-term (working) memory. Second, you have to hold these 2D static mental representations in your working memory and combine them on the fly to construct an accurate 3D static representation. Finally, you have to infer and impart the dynamic nature of the human form onto this 3D static representation.

Traditional medical training requires an enormous amount of cognitive capacity - working memory - and cognitive energy - executive attention - taxing them in such a way makes mistakes much more likely
Share on X

The cognitive science research is clear that each of the steps above requires an enormous amount of cognitive capacity (in the form of working memory) as well as cognitive energy (in the form of executive attention). Any time working memory load and executive attentional demands are taxed in such a way, you are more likely to make an error and generate an inferior mental representation. Or simply fail to understand and absorb crucial information.

Well-constructed immersive learning tools such as the Microsoft HoloLens bypass this fundamental problem by generating a highly accurate 3D dynamic representation of this 3D dynamic human form
Share on X

Well-constructed immersive learning tools such as the Microsoft HoloLens bypass this fundamental problem by generating a highly accurate 3D dynamic representation of this 3D dynamic human form, displaying it directly and accurately within the product and presenting it ready for the learner to study.

Surgeons at Imperial College London are using Mixed Reality technology to spot key blood vessels, bones and muscles prior to surgery
Share on X

This training is intuitive because it reduces the extensive working memory and executive attention demands associated with traditional medical visualization training that we outlined above. By removing the need to construct a 3D dynamic mental representation from a series of 2D static images, the working memory and executive attention load on the learner has been slashed. Equally – if not more importantly – the dynamic 3D mental representation in the learner is given a boost by the visual learning and representation systems in the brain that has evolved for just this type of learning. This system builds a 3D mental representation of objects from the dynamic flow of information on the retina.

This training is intuitive because it reduces the extensive working memory and executive attention demands associated with traditional medical visualization training
Share on X

A number of offerings of this sort exist. One that is representative is a recent application of the HoloLens mixed reality platform that is being used at the Imperial College London to help surgeons “see inside” patients before they operate. Surgeons are using this technology to spot key blood vessels, bones and muscles prior to surgery. This enhances preparation and increases the success rate of surgery. Dr. Philip Pratt, a Research Fellow in the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, said HoloLens is allowing surgeons to quickly and accurately understand a patient’s unique anatomy.

“Mixed reality offers a new way to find these blood vessels accurately and quickly by overlaying scan images onto the patient during the operation, explains Dr Pratt. “To perform the best operation, you have to plan it meticulously beforehand. This technology allows us to experience the data that we have collected from patients before their operation in the most realistic and natural way. You look at the leg and essentially see inside of it; you see the bones and the course of the blood vessels.”

This same logic applies to visualizing the brain, a neuron, or even a molecule, so I fully expect immersive visualization training to replace traditional training within the next five years
Share on X

The psychological and brain science research outlined above suggests that immersive learning tools have great potential in medical visualization training. This same logic applies to visualizing the brain, a neuron, or even a molecule, so I fully expect immersive visualization training to replace traditional training, and cadaverless training for non-surgeons to be the rule, not the exception, within the next five years.

The technology development often outpaces research, which why collaboration between technology developers like Microsoft and institutions such as Imperial and Case Western are crucial
Share on X

That said, efficacy/validation studies should always be conducted to verify that a particular immersive visualization training tool is superior to traditional training approaches, and should be used during the development process to make the product better. Although initial evidence and response from, teachers, learners and various experts in these fields is extremely encouraging, there is still a need for rigorous academic studies that directly and rigorously compare an AR/VR training platform with a traditional training platform on standardized tests of anatomy and physiology, as well as other critical factors known to affect learning, such as non-standard environmental conditions. It is early days, and the technology often advances at such speed that it outpaces such research, which is why collaboration between technology developers such as Microsoft and institutions such as Imperial and Case Western are highly welcome in validating the value and viability of these applications.

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Todd Maddox is Science, Sports and Training Correspondent at Tech Trends, and the CEO of Cognitive Design and Statistical Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @wtoddmaddox

The post Extending Reality to the Operating Room appeared first on Tech Trends.

The adoption of xR applications will accelerate in 2018 as it provides cheaper and more effective training than traditional approaches.

Extended reality (xR) refers to real-and-virtual combined environments and human-machine interactions generated by computer technology and wearables. In the coming years it’s expected that the adoption of immersive technologies in training will increase considerably, spanning areas from sports training to soft skills education, and one sector which stands to gain significant efficiencies from their adoption is medical training. Below we outline four key areas that can be significantly enhanced with appropriate xR training:

Extended reality (xR) refers to real-and-virtual combined environments and human-machine interactions generated by computer technology and wearables
Share on X

Medical Visualization and Representation

The human body is a 3-dimensional structure that functions as a dynamic system. One of the first goals of medical training is to impart a deep understanding of anatomy, physiology and the dynamics of this amazing system. In order to do that, a medical trainee must first map that information out in their mind, forming a visual mental representation of the human body that is 3D, dynamic and perfectly mimics the actual form.

One of the first goals of medical training is to impart a deep understanding of anatomy, physiology and the dynamics of this amazing system
Share on X

The most common way to achieve this goal is to have students read textbooks filled with drawings and pictures of the human body. The learner must thus construct their 3D dynamic mental representation using 2D, static descriptions, often supplemented with video or cadaver study. Overall, this puts a significant cognitive load on the brain and is not ideal and does not recruit the regions of the brain that have evolved specifically for constructing visual mental representations. There must be a better way!

xR technologies are now being developed to help medical trainees construct mental representations of the human form that are 3D and dynamic
Share on X

In fact, xR technologies are now being developed to help medical trainees construct mental representations of the human form that are 3D and dynamic. One can think of these tools as xR textbooks. [For a more detailed description of the psychological and brain science of xR medical visualization tools, I co-authored an article, currently under review, with Peter Campbell, CEO at xpereal which is available under request.]

Optimized Behavioral Skills Training

A nurse learning how to draw blood or to insert a catheter is learning a set of motor behaviors. A doctor learning how to deliver a baby, or a surgeon learning to remove a brain tumor are also doing so. The degree varies, but in all cases motor skills are critical.

The human brain has evolved two distinct learning systems: One for cognitive skills – which recruits the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobes and learns “what” one needs to do to solve a task – and the second for behavioural skills that learn “how” one solves the task.

Behavioral skills are learned gradually and incrementally via dopamine-mediated, error-correction learning in the basal ganglia of the brain and require extensive practice
Share on X

So while the checklist of steps to follow to deliver a baby would be learned by the cognitive skills learning system in the brain, the motor behaviors required to complete the steps on the baby delivery checklist would be learned by the behavioral skills learning system in the brain. Behavioral skills are learned gradually and incrementally via dopamine-mediated, error-correction learning in the basal ganglia of the brain and thus require extensive practice.

xR medical training technologies are now being developed that optimally target the behavioral skills training system in the brain
Share on X

Yet xR medical training technologies are now being developed that optimally target the behavioral skills training system in the brain. Some of the more advanced platforms include realistic artificial cadavers that even provide the appropriate haptic feedback.

Some of the more advanced platforms include realistic artificial cadavers that even provide the appropriate haptic feedback
Share on X

Training for Retention

The goal of all training, including medical training, is to convey information that will be stored in long-term memory and not forgotten. The brain is “hardwired” to forget so this is not a trivial problem to solve. We must “Train for Retention”. Yet real-world medical training is so costly and time-consuming that medical trainees rarely obtain enough of it. An xR training platform solves this problem because the trainee can practice anytime that they want.

The Human brain is hardwired to forget
Share on X

In line with the science of optimized training for retention, trainees could receive training in relatively short duration chunks that are spaced over time to allow long-term memory consolidation. Taken together, this reduces forgetting, speeds the transition to long-term “muscle memory”, and ultimately promotes the formation of habits.

Training for Extreme Situations

Another advantage of xR training is that a broad range of situations can be more effectively prepared for, ranging from routine to extreme emergency scenarios. Imagine the EMT who must deliver a baby in the back of the ambulance, without some critical piece of equipment and with a mother whose blood pressure is dangerously low. These are low probability scenarios, but are often life-threatening situations. Medical personnel want to be trained adequately in these scenarios so that they are mentally and physically prepared to handle them, and the broad-based training available with an xR medical training platform can increase generalization and transfer of the trained information, thus increasing preparedness.

xR training can help prepare medical professionals more effectively for situations ranging from routine to extreme emergency scenarios
Share on X

Immersive technologies could give learners enough realistic practice to make them job-ready before ever entering a medical facility to see patients
Share on X

xR technology therefore offers a time and cost-effective tool for training medical personnel, optimally targeting the behavioral skills learning system incorporating training procedures that optimize retention. Finally, extreme, low probability events can be trained effectively. When implemented correctly, these technologies could give learners enough realistic practice to make them job-ready before ever entering a medical facility to see patients. The days of on-the-job training with live human patients (in ERs and training hospitals) could soon be over.

The days of on-the-job training with live human patients could soon be over
Share on X

Tech Trends offers comprehensive Virtual Reality Consultancy services to support businesses looking to adopt immersive technologies into strategy.

Todd Maddox is Science, Sports and Training Correspondent at Tech Trends, and the CEO of Cognitive Design and Statistical Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @wtoddmaddox

The post How Extended Reality Will Accelerate Medical Training appeared first on Tech Trends.

Healthcare is one of the areas with most potential for dramatic improvement with the implementation of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality Technologies

The virtual world is already having a real impact in people's lives and health
Share on X

As countries around the world struggle to find health care provision models that balance the needs of aging populations with shrinking budgets—and as startups jostle to get into operating rooms—the virtual world is already being used to impact the health care of real people.

“I could be in Cleveland and teach a group of students in, say, London with all of us able to see one another and the holograms simultaneously,” says Professor Mark Griswold, Case Western Reserve’s faculty leader for the university’s efforts with Microsoft’s HoloLens, the $3,000 developer-edition-only augmented reality glasses. “The professor can see how students are interacting with the hologram in real time, and respond immediately with additional explanations or encouragement as needed.”

Devices like the HoloLens and consumer VR helmets like Samsung’s Gear VR and Facebook’s Oculus have received the most attention as vehicles for escape, but their real-world applications are growing fastest in the workplace. IDC, which pegs current industry revenues at around $5.6 billion, says much of the growth in shipments of VR and AR headsets over the next five years will come from industrial uses (80% a year), versus consumer uses (50%), like video games, films, porn, and other entertainment. Among current non-health care HoloLens customers, for instance, are companies like Lowe’s, Volvo, and ThyssenKrupp, whose technicians use the glasses to operate on ailing elevators.

Healthcare revenues for VR and AR technologies reached nearly a billion dollars in 2016
Share on X

In health care, revenues for VR and AR technologies reached nearly a billion dollars in 2016, according to Kalorama Research. Some estimate that by 2025, that number could reach over $5 billion, thanks to uses in areas like telemedicine, pain relief, robotic surgery, and, increasingly, medical simulations.

VR and AR are already being used in areas like pain relief, robotic surgery and telemedicine
Share on X

Medical instructors say a VR helmet, coupled with haptic-feedback “syringes,” can help a surgeon practice a complex operation in detail before carrying it out—or help a doctor with limited access to education locally get better medical training, improving patient experience and outcomes. A pair of augmented reality goggles can put an animated “patient” in front of students, making the expensive dummies obsolete altogether. And as medical operations become more sophisticated and high-tech, computer glasses could help get practitioners up to speed faster.

The United States is facing a shortfall of 100,000 physicians by 2030
Share on X

Health care experts have proposed new technologies like these as one of various solutions to what some have called a crisis in medicine: The United States could be facing a shortfall of between 48,000 and 100,000 physicians by 2030, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Since it takes between five and 10 years on average to train a new physician, medical industry experts say the U.S. urgently needs more people to enter that training pipeline now, particularly in highly specialized fields: The greatest shortfall, on a percentage basis, will be in the demand for surgeons, especially those who treat cancer and other diseases more common to older people.

Using Mixed Reality simulations to train surgeons could alleviate the shortfall and bring in cost savings
Share on X

Alleviating that shortfall and upgrading decades-old simulations with mixed reality could also ferry in cost savings that can’t come soon enough. In the U.S., the cost of health care continues to surge, far beyond the price of drugs: Open-heart surgery is 70% more than the next highest country; an appendectomy over two times more. And the price for a day in the hospital is about five times more in the U.S. than other developed countries.

Originally published on the Fast Company website

The unreal, bleeding-edge tech that’s helping doctors make the cut https://t.co/g1dV4I5BBp pic.twitter.com/707KhPVUXz

— Fast Company (@FastCompany) June 20, 2017

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Changing the Way Surgeons Operate with Mixed Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

Two-thirds of the world’s population don’t have access to safe surgery. That’s as many as 5 billion people.

And of the 313 million procedures undertaken globally every year, only 6% occur in the poorest areas where over one third of the world’s population lives.

To cope with this huge problem, it is estimated that by 2030 we will need to train over 1.27 million additional surgical providers, which of course presents some enormous logistical and financial challenges.

Proximie is a start-up looking to solve this problem with an Internet-enabled software tool that allows doctors to guide, help, support and train surgeons through the use of Augmented Reality. According to its Co-founder Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram, the key advantage it offers is that it’s much more interactive than traditional simulation or live streaming tools, thus enabling higher levels of collaboration and better learning outcomes.

Two thirds of the world’s population don’t have access to safe surgery
Share on X

The Augmented environment is created by overlaying two live video feeds, one in the surgical theatre filming the operation, the other pointing to a blank surface connected to the surgeon’s tablet or laptop. This allows the surgeon to draw on their screen while looking at the live surgery feed, and for the remote team to see the marks made by the surgeon and follow them precisely at their end.

Surgery is a very visual so it’s far more useful, interesting and engaging to watch it live
Share on X

They are one of the companies being supported in their rapid growth by the UK Lebanon Tech Hub and have been attracting significant praise and attention from both the scientific and technology communities, winning the prestigious Royal Society of Medicine prize for Innovation in e-Health and being invited to join the MIT “Arab World Meets Silicon Valley” forum at TechCrunch Disrupt in September.

Dr. Hachach-Haram, a Lebanese surgeon based in the UK is passionate about the use of the software as a training aid for students:

When we had the old-fashioned viewing galleries, dozens of students were able to watch surgery without affecting or crowding the surgical area, and could engage with the surgeon and ask questions,” She recalls. “Fast-forward to 2016, where we have much smaller operating theatres, reduced facilities and overstretched operating lists- this environment is much less amenable to surgical education and engagement from medical students.

So Proximie is effectively updating that viewing gallery experience using 21^st Century technology, so that a large number of students can log in and watch a procedure from wherever they are in the world.

Surgery is a very visual, precise and anatomical part of medicine and no matter how many times one reads it in a book, it’s always far more useful, interesting and engaging to be able to watch it live, ask questions, and visualise anatomy and pathology.

In September they will launch a pilot in partnership with UCL’s Royal Free Hospital to integrate Proximie into their surgical curriculum. The educational version of the platform also has a student dashboard function, which allows them to access elements relevant to their educational curriculum, giving the ability to take notes and screenshots for later review, for example.

A cohort of students will be given access to the platform and will be able to log in to a number of operating theatres to observe the surgeries in an interactive way with the added elements of annotation, AR and other great features that will make this a completely new way of learning.

This cutting -edge technology (no pun intended) includes features such as the ability to annotate live streams and medical records integration, meaning doctors can easily access information about a patient during surgery and take snapshots during the procedure which are automatically added to that patient’s records.

Proximie is hardware agnostic and requires minimal infrastructure, working with any tablet, smartphone or laptop and providing an intuitive interface with no need for expensive tools. Surgeons can literally use AR to draw on their screen using something as simple and affordable as a capped bic pen.

Proximie's cutting -edge technology includes the ability to annotate live streams and medical records integration
Share on X

This technology could have a significant impact in the quality of care provided to patients in conflict zones such as Gaza and Syria. The software allows an experienced surgeon to be virtually “parachuted in” to support and guide a procedure with their specialist expertise, without any of the danger and cost of physical travel.

There are, of course, some logistic challenges associated with live streaming technology, as anybody who’s ever been on a pixelated Skype call knows. Dr Hachach-Haram says that in situations where in remote areas or conflict zones they have modified the application so that it will still provide high quality video stream even at lower network speeds. “It’s an all-round adaptive solution, and while we’re a commercial platform, we’re also committed to social impact projects, as that’s a core component of our DNA. Proximie offers free licences to charities to support them in tackling inequality in surgical knowledge and expertise.”

Currently the telesurgery feature needs to be scheduled in advance, but future iterations are already planned where the service will host a database of surgeons all over the world listed according to expertise, allowing colleagues to check their availability and seek assistance and advice in real time.

Even in developed countries such as the UK, the potential for this type of technology to maximize efficiency is enormous, as surgeons would be able to support procedures in different hospitals without the time and costs associated with commuting to various locations. It would also ensure better patient care, as the best specialist for a particular procedure could support it regardless of their geographical location at any given time.

Even in countries such as the UK, the potential for this technology to maximise efficiency is enormous
Share on X

Dr. Hachach-Haram says they will be watching the developments in the Virtual Reality market with interest, and it is not difficult to imagine how, as VR technology and hardware become more accessible and pervasive, it will offer even greater possibilities for immersive learning and expertise sharing.

Virtual and Augmented Reality certainly represent a booming sector, and there is a growing interest in the medical applications for these technologies. According to a recent report from Frost & Sullivan the next 10 years are set to redefine the future of both business and consumer processes and interactions and will be adopted widely across industries by 2025.

“AR and VR will be a giant step in transforming and democratising education and businesses, especially in medicine, where immersive technology can facilitate education and access-at-a-distance for medical care,” said Dr Rafael Grossmann, who was the first person to stream a live surgical procedure with Google Glass, and his company Medical Realities, led by colleague Dr Shafi Ahmed, live-streamed the first VR surgery from The Royal London Hospital, with 54,000 viewers virtually present in the operating theatre.

From all around the world, they gained an exclusive point-of-view demonstration and interacted in real-time with the surgical event. Imagine how this level of interaction can deliver next-generation education for students worldwide, especially in developing countries, added Dr Grossmann.

There are also interesting developments in the hardware arena, with Georgian start-up InGlove developing a VR glove which could prove useful for applications such as medical simulations, and Purdue University researching a system called DeepHand, which uses a “convolutional neural network” that mimics the human brain and is capable of “deep learning” to understand the hand’s nearly endless complexity of joint angles and contortions. It uses a depth-sensing camera to capture the user’s hand and figure out where the hands and fingers are, applying algorithms to then replicate those motions in real time. Karthik Ramani, director of the University’s C Design Lab says that in Virtual Reality it is crucial for your hands to be able to accurately interact with the virtual world in order to provide full immersion.

Imagine how this level of interaction can deliver next-generation education for students worldwide
Share on X

It will be interesting to see how immersive tech develops and find new applications across areas such as medicine and education, and many agree that this will be the crucial factor in determining how quickly VR becomes pervasive.

For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Training the Next Generation of Surgeons with Augmented Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.