British tech company FundamentalVR has been at the forefront of virtual reality (VR) training in the healthcare system, primarily focused on surgical education via its Fundamental Surgery platform. Today, the company has announced an expansion into standalone headset support for the likes of Oculus Quest and HTC Vive Focus Plus with a platform extension called @HomeVR.
Thanks to standalone headsets offering a low-cost alternative and being easier to run than their PC-based counterparts, devices like Oculus Quest make VR training a far more viable and convenient option. Fundamental Surgery is hardware-agnostic, able to mimic the physical cues of surgical actions, medical tools, and tissue variations.
Already deployed in hospitals worldwide, the surgical platform utilises off-the-shelf hardware combined with HapticVR sense-of-touch, enabling users acquisition of real-world skills. Surgeons experience the same sights, sounds and feeling they would in a real procedure.
“Leveraging low-cost hardware, our multimodal platform allows medical institutions to take advantage of the proven benefits of surgical simulations at scale, and in ways that ensure the consistency of training delivery, and effectiveness of their curriculums,” said Richard Vincent, CEO, and co-founder, FundamentalVR in a statement.
“The @HomeVR modality provides a highly mobile and cost-effective way to acquire the knowledge and understanding of the technical skills required to carry out surgical procedures,” Vincent continues. “The HapticVR modality helps students apply and deepen this knowledge while becoming proficient in the skills required to carry out the procedures. Together, they provide a more powerful education platform. No other software platform can do both nor have received CME or CPD accreditation from the America Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons of England.”
You won’t find @HomeVR on the Oculus Store. Users download the simulations by logging into their Fundamental Surgery account and selecting their desired procedure. Procedures are being phased in for existing customers starting with Total Hip Arthroplasty (Anterior Approach) with more on the way.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of FundamentalVR and the healthcare industry as a whole as it continues to embrace VR technology and its educational abilities, offering up t date news on the latest advancements.