Software company FundamentalVR has concentrated on the healthcare side of virtual reality (VR) for a number of years now, launching its surgical teaching platform Fundamental Surgery in 2018. This week the company announced that its software has been made part of the curriculum for the South West London Registrar Orthopaedic Training Program.
Fundamental Surgery has been adopted by St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for its spine and orthopaedic training, installed within the GAPS Centre (St George’s Advanced Patient Simulation and Skills Centre).
The platform enables trainees to test and hone their skills, able to repeat procedures over and over again. Then using Fundamental Surgery’s live dashboard both trainees and professors can review their performance, accurately seeing a trainees progression.
“We are thrilled to have integrated Fundamental Surgery into the GAPS Centre and to have also had the group of orthopaedic trainees go through the program, experiencing the Posterior Approach Total Hip Replacement (PTHR) on the machine for the first time,” said Omar Sabri, consultant at St George’s University Hospital s NHS Foundation Trust and lead consultant on the integration into the program in a statement. “Through this integration, trainees can now demonstrate the skills they’ve learned by using this technology and have it reflected in their educational portfolio and Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Project. This along with the Royal College approval are just the start for Fundamental Surgery’s platform and the team’s effort to integrate it into all surgical training programs across the country.”
“Our education platform has tremendous long – term potential for enhancing surgical training throughout the NHS, in the pursuit of better patient outcomes,” said Richard Vincent, CEO at FundamentalVR. “The implementation is further proof that our haptic simulations provide a virtual environment that can help provides access and aid training development.”
Fundamental Surgery is a hardware agnostic platform, designed to be used with any laptop, VR headset or haptic device. It enables users to experience as close to a real surgical procedure as possible, simulating the same sounds, visuals, and feelings. This is aided by HapticVR, FundamentalVR’s proprietary technology which allows trainees to feel the movement and interaction of tissue, muscle and bone. VRFocus will continue its coverage of FundamentalVR, reporting back with the latest updates.