A couple of months ago surgical training specialist Precision OS hosted a worldwide virtual reality (VR) training course during the Global Spine Congress (GSC) helping to showcase its educational platform. Today, the company has announced a partnership with humanitarian organization SIGN Fracture Care to bring surgical training to orthopaedic surgeons in
developing countries.
This has been made possible thanks to Epic Games collaborating with Precision OS, providing an Epic MegaGrant because the training company uses Unreal Engine to build the VR training solution.
SIGN Fracture Care specialises in providing access to fracture surgery for those that can’t afford it by donating orthopaedic education and implant systems. Its partnership with Precision OS means an expansion of these efforts which currently serve 365 hospitals across 53 countries. Oculus Quest’s preloaded with Precision’s surgical training platform will be distributed to these hospitals, allowing physicians to be taught remotely using the software’s multiplayer option.
“From the day we founded the company, we had a vision for using the immense scalability of virtual reality training to improve surgeon training and raise the standard of care worldwide,” states Danny Goel, M.D., CEO and co-founder of Precision OS. “SIGN Fracture Care International has been dedicated to that same mission and we are proud to support their work. We are grateful to our partners in this effort who are helping us to realize our collective vision.”
David Shearer, M.D. and Richard Gellman, M.D., surgeons and SIGN Board Members as well as founder and president of SIGN Fracture Care, Lewis Zirkle M.D. will provide the training.
“As it stands we have to spend several months a year travelling or flying surgeons to our headquarters to do training with the SIGN System,” says Dr. Shearer. “With VR, we have the opportunity to provide high-quality training remotely, which can markedly reduce the time and expense required. This has the potential to free up resources to train more surgeons, invest in manufacturing, and ultimately achieve greater impact.”
VR is proving to be a cost-effective training solution across a range of industries, not just healthcare, from teaching schoolchildren to enterprise. As the sector continues to grow, VRFocus will keep you updated.