Osso VR, the VR surgical training platform, today announced it’s closed a $66 million Series C financing round, something the company says will be used to broaden its VR surgical offering and hire more expert talent.
The Series C round was led by Oak HC/FT, which includes participation from Signalfire, GSR Ventures, Tiger Global Management and Kaiser Permanente Ventures.
This brings the company’s lifetime outside investment to around $109 million, with its $27 million Series B arriving in July 2021.
Founded in late 2016 by UCLA and Harvard-trained orthopedic surgeon Justin Barad, MD, Osso VR’s surgical training tech provides on-demand, educational experiences to surgeons with a focus on acquainting them with emerging techniques and technologies. The company works with industry leaders such as Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, Zimmer Biomet and Smith & Nephew.
More recently, Osso VR made strides during the COVID-19 pandemic since its VR training allows medical professionals to learn and practice from a distance. It provides modules across a number of fields, including orthopedics, endoscopy, and a host of interventional procedures.
The company has now grown to more than 150 employees, and Osso VR says it plans to grow “exponentially” over the next year.
“The future at Osso VR is incredibly bright. Each step of the way, we’ve stayed true to our mission to democratize healthcare and seen the results that our platform brings to surgical training and assessment,” said Barad. “This round of investment supports the next step of our journey to provide access to all healthcare professionals. I couldn’t be more excited to take this next step with such a talented, passionate team.”
When it comes to training healthcare professionals using the latest immersive technology precision is everything. While platforms like Osso VR provide virtual scenarios, hardware companies are also being tapped for their solutions. VR Electronics Ltd – the maker of Teslasuit – has announced a new partnership with the Innovation Institute at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) to use its full-body system to help collect data on use cases such as performance training and next-generation rehabilitation.
A specialist centre for orthopaedics, rheumatology, and related disciplines, HSS will be using the diagnostic capabilities of the Teslasuit – its sensors cover 95% of a users muscle mass – to develop advance personalized, real-time diagnostics, training and physical rehabilitation. Thus allowing physicians to analyze biometry and movement data for diagnostics and monitoring purposes.
“Our products’ effectiveness for enhancing human performance is already proven for XR synthetic training across many of the world’s largest companies and research institutions. So partnering with HSS makes perfect sense to utilize Teslasuit’s technologies in innovative medicine, combining our advanced systems’ technologies and joint expertise. Together we can significantly improve the quality of patient care,” said Sergei Nossoff, CEO of VR Electronics Ltd in a statement. “Our partnership with the Hospital for Special Surgery will extend our capability to be at the forefront of immersive technology, powering the future of medical healthcare solutions.”
The Teslasuit has been on the market for a couple of years now, originally debuting at CES 2018. Priced at $12,999 USD, the full-body suit has been designed for a range of professional use cases, whether that’s for biometric data as mentioned, to haptic feedback to improve situational awareness and motion capture.
“HSS has a unique responsibility and opportunity to advance the field of musculoskeletal health, combining our expertise and state-of-the-art technology for better wellness, injury prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery,” Louis A. Shapiro, President and CEO of HSS adds. “This partnership with Teslasuit is another example of how we are fulfilling our purpose, to help people get back to what they need and love to do better than any other place in the world.”
There are a lot of exciting developments when it comes to the XR and healthcare industries collaborating with HSS and VR Electronics Ltd’s new partnership just the latest example. As further updates on this collaboration are revealed, VRFocus will let you know.
There’s been plenty of virtual reality (VR) investment news already this month with the latest coming from surgical training specialist Osso VR. The company has announced the completion of a $27 million USD Series B funding round to help it expand its training platform.
The round was led by GSR Ventures, with participation from Signalfire, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, OCA Ventures, Scrum Ventures, Leslie Ventures and Anorak Ventures. The funding will help Osso VR maintain the rapid growth the company saw during 2020 when multinationals like Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, and Smith & Nephew looked towards digital training models because of the pandemic.
“Osso VR is positioned to transform how surgeons are trained on new devices and surgical procedures,” said Dr. Sunny Kumar, a partner at GSR Ventures in a statement. “The Osso platform’s level of immersion provides an experience that mirrors the operating room in a manner more efficient, more accessible, and more effective than any surgical training platform that’s come before.”
Founded in 2016, Osso VR allows surgeons, sales teams and other trainees within the healthcare profession to safely carry out procedures as many times as they like, all inside a highly realistic training environment. With a surgical training library offering 120+ modules in 10+ specialities, these range from orthopaedics and endoscopy to interventional procedures and more.
“After proving the clinical effectiveness of the platform and its unique ability to scale up to the millions of providers around the world, we are ready to accelerate,” said Justin Barad, MD, CEO and Co-Founder of Osso VR. “With this latest round, we plan to exponentially expand our library and platform so that every patient in the world can have the peace of mind knowing they are getting access to the safest, highest-value procedures.”
Currently deployed in over 20 countries, Osso VR is available in multiple languages and used in hospital residency programs at Brown University, Johns Hopkins University and more. Previously, Osso VR raised $14m in its Series A funding round which also featured GSR Ventures.
As Osso VR continues to improve its training platform, VRFocus will keep you updated.
Osso VR, the creators behind the immersive surgical platform, today announced its secured $27 million in Series B financing.
The funding round was led by GSR Ventures, with participation from Signalfire, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, OCA Ventures, Scrum Ventures, Leslie Ventures, and Anorak Ventures.
According to Crunchbase, this brings the Silicon Valley-based company’s overall outside funding to $43 million. Its penultimate round arrived back in September 2020 to the tune of $14 million.
Founded in late 2016 by UCLA and Harvard-trained orthopedic surgeon Justin Barad, MD, Osso VR’s surgical training tech provides on-demand, educational experiences to surgeons with a focus on acquainting them with emerging techniques and technologies. The company works with industry leaders such as Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, and Smith & Nephew.
“After proving the clinical effectiveness of the platform and its unique ability to scale up to the millions of providers around the world, we are ready to accelerate,” said CEO and co-founder Justin Barad, MD. “With this latest round, we plan to exponentially expand our library and platform so that every patient in the world can have the peace of mind knowing they are getting access to the safest, highest-value procedures.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Osso VR says its experienced rapid growth during 2020 as it stretched to fulfill demand for immersive training models. This, the company says, has helped it to expand its offering now to over 120 modules across 10+ specialties, including new additions like orthopedics, endoscopy, and interventional procedures.
Virtual reality (VR) has seen a leap in both technology and accessibility in the past decade. A wide variety of standalone and tethered devices are available to consumers at a reasonable price, like the Oculus Quest 2 and the HTC Vive. A majority of the public interest around VR has been as an immersive gaming experience, but the practical applications of VR go far beyond videogames. In recent years, VR has become a subject of intense interest in medicine and medical education.
A Treatment Modality
One of the major subjects of interest for VR has been post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders. Several studies have investigated whether VR can be used to help people suffering from PTSD. These found that VR could enhance the effects of exposure therapy on PTSD symptoms. Still, it is unclear how applicable these results are to a general population as the sample groups were predominantly male military service members. Other studies examining VR as a treatment for members of the general public with anxiety disorders or depression found promising results regarding symptom relief.
Clinicians have also found novel methods to apply VR in the context of other psychiatric disorders. Patients with major psychotic symptoms like paranoia, persecutory delusions, and functional impairments found symptom relief by VR-based cognitive therapy. Some studies have found that addiction disorders like substance use and gambling demonstrated that VR could provide a safe environment to undergo exposure therapy without relapse. Body image disorders seem to respond well to VR as well, with bulimia and binge eating disorder patients experiencing symptom relief for up to a year after VR therapy.
VR has also been applied to the management of neurodevelopmental differences as well. Promising results have emerged, revealing that VR improved attention span similar to the more traditional continuous performance test training but with greater enthusiasm from participants. Some therapists use VR to help children on the autism spectrum develop social skills in a consequence-free environment with guidance from a therapist.
An Educational Tool
The field of medicine does not only benefit from VR as a treatment, but also as a powerful educational tool. VR is enabling immersive training programs that can reduce costs by avoiding costly props and other expenses. These simulations have the advantage of being versatile and highly customizable. The SimX system, for example, allows for the creation of tailor-made simulations to match the specific needs of each user. This is especially useful for training for less common conditions wherein finding simulations would require travel or pose a long wait time.
Finally, VR is bringing the promise of remote learning to new levels. With VR and online services, learners worldwide can work together to tackle each scenario in real-time. In times of social distancing and learning from home, VR provides an alternative to endless web meetings that is both engaging and effective.
Conclusion
The field of medicine is finally reaping the benefits of decades of advancements in VR technology and public interest. Although more research is needed to determine the best methods to use VR in healthcare, it is apparent that the technology will play an ever-increasing role in medicine in the coming years and shape the future of medical education.
Vicarious Surgical, a robotics-based medical company, today announced that it’s merging with D8 Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company. Vicarious Surgical is slated to go public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) where it is expected to garner up to $460 million, with an estimated $1.1 billion valuation.
Founded in 2014, Vicarious Surgical develops what it calls “human-like surgical robots” connected to VR headsets which is said to transport surgeons inside a patient to perform minimally invasive surgery.
“Our robotic solution has arms that replicate human motion, offering remarkable mobility with 9 degrees of freedom per arm with 360-degree visualization, all through a 1.5 cm incision,” co-founder & CEO of Vicarious Surgical Adam Sachs says in a press statement.
Image courtesy Vicarious Surgical
The company’s robot can “see, reach, and work anywhere inside the abdomen,” and effectively ‘shrinks’ the surgeon so they can work from a new perspective.
“Our system fits through a standard door making it portable from operating room to operating room, and does not require a large footprint or facility construction build-out,” Sachs says. “With cost of goods that are significantly lower than competing products, we believe our robotic solution will offer a cost-effective path to improving patient outcomes and increasing the efficiency of surgical procedures for hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.”
Once the merger is finalized, the company will retain its Various Surgical branding as goes public on the NYSE under the new ticker symbol “RBOT”.
Vicarious Surgical says if everything goes to plan, it estimates it will be valued at approximately $1.1 billion, making it another VR unicorn company. Including investment by medical technology company BD, the raise includes investment from Bill Gates, Vinod Khosla’s Khosla Ventures, Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, and Philip Liang’s E15 VC.
There will likely come a time where most surgeons will have received some form of training utilising virtual reality (VR), with several companies specialising in this field. Previously focusing on orthopaedic training, Osso VR has announced the expansion of its VR modules to include specialities such as interventional procedures and endoscopy.
The addition of these allow surgeons, sales teams and other trainees to practice techniques within a safe and repeatable environment, ideal in the current climate. And thanks to Oculus Quest support, professionals are able to train and assess themselves anytime, anywhere in realistic settings.
An example of the endoscopy can be seen in the video below, showcasing Osso VR’s highly realistic digital representation. This level of detail was rolled-out in 2020 as the company aimed for film-level quality throughout is platform.
“As an orthopaedic surgeon I have seen firsthand the need for an on-demand training and assessment tool for healthcare professionals,” said Justin Barad, MD, CEO and co-founder of Osso VR. “Initially Osso VR started mainly in orthopaedics, but what we have found is the unique platform we have built has been widely applicable across a range of specialities. We’re excited to formally launch this expansion in order to reach more healthcare professionals in order to provide value for their patients. This is an important milestone in Osso’s ambitious mission to improve patient outcomes, increase the adoption of high-value medical technology, and democratize access to surgical education worldwide.”
These improvements have been made possible thanks to Osso VR securing a $14 million USD investment in a Series A funding round led by Kaiser Permanente Ventures, with SignalFire, GSR, Scrum Ventures, Leslie Ventures and OCA Ventures also participating.
Osso VR was founded in 2016 by Harvard-trained orthopaedic surgeon Justin Barad, MD, with the platform currently used by 20+ teaching hospitals and 11 top medical device companies in 20 countries. It has built a medical illustration team consisting of veterans from Industrial Light & Magic, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Apple. As further advances are made in the medical VR space, VRFocus will keep you updated.
FundamentalVR launched its virtual training platform back in 2018, combining patented haptics with realistic visuals to help teach surgeons various procedures including Spinal Pedicle Screw and Total Knee Arthroplasty. Today, the company has announced an expansion to its programs, adding ophthalmology.
Ophthalmology deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders, with the Fundamental Surgery platform now able to offer immersive, data-driven medical educational simulations for lost cost teaching of the subject. Traditionally this is done through classroom lectures, instructional videos, medical meetings, operating room observations and tissue-based wet lab training.
With a lot more industries having to move to remote learning and training methods in 2020, solutions such as Fundamental Surgery help to continue that educational process. Students are still able to accelerate their learning whilst teachers have the ability to collect and objectively measure performance data.
Key to this is FundamentalVR’s HapticVR architecture, designed to mimic the physical cues of surgical actions, medical tools and tissue variations. All student interactions from their surgical gaze and respect for tissue to their movement efficiency is recorded for analysis.
FundamentalVR has also created tailored solutions for various companies, such as a cataract surgical simulator for Orbis International. The organisation aims to stop avoidable blindness by training teams in low and middle-income countries, helping their communities. Deploying the solution to select training programmes, Orbis is evaluating the impact immersive training has to surgical skills to help further development.
“Industry analysts now estimate adoption curves for immersive technologies have accelerated by around three years asCOVID-19 permanently changes traditional teaching methods,” said Richard Vincent, co-founder and CEO of FundamentalVR in a statement. “With the addition of ophthalmology capacities, we are meeting this increased demand with proven technology that allows medical device companies and medical educators to more effectively train the next generation of surgeons and bringing innovative new procedures and equipment to market permanently.”
Fundamental Surgery currently supports off-the-shelf devices such as Oculus Quest and HTC Vive Focus Plus, for an unlimited number of remote simultaneous users. VRFocuswill continue its coverage of FundamentalVR and the healthcare industry, offering up to date news on the latest advancements.
Virtual reality (VR) training platforms need a high level of detail to ensure that they can accurately teach users. This goes double for healthcare-focused solutions so trainees can learn highly specialised skills. Today, surgical training platform Osso VR has announced the rollout of a new experience to further increase the visual quality of its product, achieving lifelike detail in the process.
To improve the visual fidelity of not only anatomical details of patients but also medical tools and the operating environment, Osso VR has assembled a team from the videogame and film industries. The medical illustration team includes alums from Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Apple, as well as Oscar-winning art director Jonathan Sabella (Marvel, Star Wars).
As the images showcase, the level of detail looks exceptional – and certainly not for the squeamish – from the blood around the knee to the lighting which gives the skin that realistic sheen.
“Osso VR’s team is lightning in a bottle. A once in a lifetime team of leading engineers, artists and educators who have dedicated their careers to optimizing patient safety. This group of Oscar and Emmy award winners bring an experience that is accurate, engaging, and educational making a significant impact on the adoption of our clinically validated platform,“ said Justin Barad MD, CEO and Co-Founder of Osso VR in a statement.
“We’ve reached a level of detail in the anatomy, surgical tools, and the OR environment within the platform that was not previously possible. This will improve our ability to accomplish our mission, improving patient outcomes, driving the adoption of high-value technologies and democratizing access to surgical education globally,” Barad adds.
Designed for surgeons, sales teams and other trainees, Osso VR’s training platform is currently employed by over 20 teaching hospitals and eight medical device companies in 20 countries since it was founded in 2016.
Surgical training – especially when used remotely – is being pioneered by several companies, not just Osso VR. VRFocus has previously reported on developments with Precision OS as well as FundamentalVR this year, as the sector adopts new devices like Oculus Quest. For further updates from this VR sector, keep reading VRFocus.
On a day to day basis, VRFocus is used to playing the latest videogames or apps in various stages of development, yet the virtual reality (VR) industry has grown to such an extent that plenty of heavily specialised content is kept under lock and key. So when surgical training specialist Precision OS offered the chance to take a look at its platform and how the future was shaping up for this area of the healthcare industry, it was a definitive yes.
Currently, in beta, the Precision OS platform wants to aid training of orthopaedic surgeons around the world, offering a cheaper solution which students can use again and again. In the present coronavirus situation, this kind of remote learning is even more impactful, especially for those in developing countries who might not have readily available access to traditional training methods.
Using an Oculus Quest, the app offers both solo and multiplayer training with VRFocus able to access a knee operation, and no you won’t find it on the Oculus Store. This was then further split down into two segments which provided step by step instructions to carry out the required surgery.
Having played countless gory VR titles – with a penchant for horror – the expectation that the app wouldn’t create any squeamishness was high, more so having seen screenshots prior to delving in. Testament to the level of detail this turned out not to be the case, who knew that drilling into a virtual bone then carefully sawing a little off the top would suddenly create a slight uneasy feeling.
Brushing that aside, the software takes students through the main components and tools of this process, selecting the various sizes of drill to slowly expand the bone cavity or choosing the correct depth to saw a few millimetres of bone away. This wasn’t by the numbers either, several stages provided options so there was always the chance of getting it wrong, taking too much away or not enough. Thus Precision OS perfectly showcased how useful this software is going to be when used in conjunction with more traditional methods as students can repeat the process endlessly.
Whilst not photo-realistic, Precision OS provides fine enough anatomical detail that those employing this type of software could happily step into the virtual theatre whenever needed to hone that knowledge, even when working within the constraints of Oculus Quest’s processing power. The main reason the software is on the standalone headset is versatility. Sure it could be made to look amazing on a high-powered PC running a Valve Index but that complicates the logistics of deploying training solutions to a wide audience.
This is especially so when considering the multiplayer, direct training aspect. It’s a crucial part of the software for both the student and teacher alike. CEO and co-founder of Precision OS, Danny Goel, M.D. helmed the session, noting that travelling across the world to help teach new students is both time consuming and expensive. Whereas in Precision OS – much like any remote collaboration tool – it was easy to chat between the US and UK, with the added benefit of being in a surgical theatre, stood either side of the virtual patient to learn about the procedure in greater detail.
After watching and learning from a professional it was far more encouraging going back into the solo mode to try the surgery again. At the end of each segment, you’re assessed and given a score. Hitting 85% on the first run through felt like an achievement, although there’s no chance of me changing careers anytime soon. While some of the finer surgical points were naturally lost on these amateur hands, there was one aspect that wasn’t, VR’s continued ability to demonstrate its potential through innovative use cases.
