September 9, 2020 – FundamentalVR, a company that uses immersive technology to improve the way surgeons are trained, has today announced the expansion of its educational platform, Fundamental Surgery, with ‘Teaching Space’. This feature allows multiple users to visit a virtual classroom for interactive lessons and meetings.
Earlier this year, FundamentalVR expanded its multimodal platform with its multi user capability, which allows unlimited users to practice, learn, and teach together inside an operating room (OR). Teaching Space’s addition now lets multiple users meet in a virtual classroom setting, complete with an interactive whiteboard, where they can conduct lessons, discuss a procedure before attempting it in the virtual OR, or debrief after practicing a skillset. With Teaching Space, instructors and trainees can interact, write notes, and share ideas, all from different locations and settings. Additionally, users can easily transition between Fundamental Surgery’s virtual OR and Teaching Space, according to the company.
Furthermore, the platform can help companies to save both time and money by bringing surgeons together into Teaching Space for briefings, Q&A sessions and one-on-one training without the need to travel. FundamentalVR states that its application also has value for medical sales for training, compliance and virtual sales calls with ‘digital twins’ of instrumentation. Watch the video below to see Teaching Space in action.
“COVID-19 has presented significant challenges to surgical training and in many cases completely disrupted traditional training programs, which have relied upon face-to-face events. Video conferencing facilities have come to meet the immediate communication needs of many. However, these 2D platforms do not fully replace the teaching and learning opportunities of being together in the same room talking about a patient case pre-operatively or live in an OR looking at the patient anatomy and handling surgical tools,” said Peter Rainger, Chief Learning Officer at FundamentalVR. “Our new Teaching Space, which provides a collaborative environment for surgical education in VR, allows residents and KOLs from across the globe to come together for teaching sessions, to review cases and share their knowledge and skills.”
Teaching Space is compatible across both of Fundamental Surgery’s accredited modalities: HapticVR and @HomeVR. HapticVR combines VR with haptic technology, granting surgeons the sense-of-touch and allowing them to experience the same sights, sounds and feelings they would in a real procedure. @HomeVR brings Fundamental Surgery’s educational simulations to standalone VR headsets such as Oculus Quest and HTC Vive Focus Plus.
“We developed Teaching Space to give instructors, trainees, residents, and surgeons a place to gather and continue their lessons no matter where they are located,” said Richard Vincent, CEO of FundamentalVR. “With most classes currently being conducted remotely, it is a much-needed resource right now. Long-term, we believe Teaching Space to be a feature users will continue to benefit from whenever they need to meet for quick lessons or review procedures at a moment’s notice.”
FundamentalVR’s Fundamental Surgery platform has been deployed across medical institutions around the world, including Mayo Clinic and UCLA in the US, UCLH in the UK and Sana in Germany. Furthermore its simulations have been accredited by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons of England, allowing the use of either modality to count towards a surgeon’s ongoing professional development, according to the company.
Teaching Space is available to current Fundamental Surgery customers at no additional cost. For further information about Fundamental Surgery and its new Workspace offering, please click here.
Video credit: FundamentalVR
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.