AI Medical Simulation Platform Helps Surgeons Learn Procedures through Immersive VR

By HospiMedica International staff writers
Posted on 31 Aug 2022

Image: Multiuser functionality (Photo courtesy of FundamentalVR)

Surgeons need to rehearse, practice and test themselves within a safe, controllable space that is as close to real life as possible. However, healthcare systems across the world are facing a shortage of trained surgeons and a lack of cadavers to practice on in some settings. On the other hand, face-to-face operating room teaching can be increasingly expensive and time consuming. Now, a medical education platform delivers multimodal simulation and education across tethered and all-in-one virtual reality (VR), mixed reality and mobile, harnessing the very latest artificial intelligence (AI) techniques

The Fundamental Surgery platform from FundamentalVR (London, UK) is the world’s first scalable medical simulation platform to combine VR and haptics through data, AI, and multimodal learning. At the core of the FundamentalVR tech stack is the company’s Haptic Intelligence Engine, a unique, patent protected software modeling system that delivers high fidelity physical interaction. The Haptic Intelligence Engine is a hardware agnostic software engine that delivers full kinesthetic force feedback haptics into a variety of handheld devices ranging from base station held instruments through to haptic gloves. FundamentalVR’s patented HapticVR technology mimics the physical touch of surgical actions which allows users to experience the sights, sounds, and physical sensations of real-life surgery. Scalable and hardware agnostic, the platform immerses users in a controlled training environment that lowers the surgical risk to patients.

Fundamental Surgery uses the latest high definition graphics and VR techniques combined with the sense of touch to deliver a ‘feel real’ experience. Each tissue texture and physical property has been mapped into the virtual space to provide the user with a unique learning experience. Users each have their own unique log in and throughout each of the simulations their performance is assessed and measured with the system providing realtime feedback on instrument use, procedural accuracy and patient impact. The Fundamental Surgery simulation system requires a low-cost hardware investment and a simple ongoing license fee. The system's simulations are focused on the orthopedic specialism but will quickly move into areas including laparoscopic, general surgery, cardiovascular and otolaryngology (ENT).