LONDON – October 22nd, 2018 – FundamentalVR, pioneers of immersive training technology for the medical community, is thrilled to announce it has won the prestigious Auggie Award for Most Impactful Breakthrough for its first-of-its-kind SaaS software platform Fundamental Surgery. The groundbreaking platform combines virtual reality (VR) with cutting-edge haptics (the sense of touch) to create a low-cost and scalable flight simulator experience for trainee and qualified surgeons.

The Auggie Awards are held at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) and presented by VR First, IEEE and AWE. They recognize excellence in the use of immersive technology in a variety of industries and use cases.

Launched in the U.S. in August 2018, Fundamental Surgery won its prestigious category for its work to innovate the way surgeons are trained, which has remained largely unchanged for the past 150 years – with classroom-based theory, operating room observation and theatre-style viewing of cadaver-based teaching still being the main sources of training for surgeons. The lack of proper training options for surgeons has ultimately led to 5 billion people being denied access to safe surgery.

“Our mission is to democratize surgical training by placing safe, affordable and authentic simulations within arm’s reach of every surgeon, and dramatically impact the way surgery is trained globally,” said Richard Vincent, founder and CEO of FundamentalVR. “To be winners of the Most Impactful Breakthrough category at the world’s #1 AR+VR conference and expo is validation of all the hard work that has gone into the creation of Fundamental Surgery over the past years. With the help of some of the top minds in medicine, as well some of the most advanced VR and haptic programmers, we have created a low-cost solution that can be deployed anywhere to allow surgeons to learn and hone their skills in a safe and controlled environment.”

Fundamental Surgery’s current training packages are focused on the orthopedic surgical disciplines with procedures including Spinal Pedicle Screw, Total Hip Arthroplasty (Posterior) and Total Knee Arthroplasty. Further orthopedic procedures will be added during Q4 2018 with other disciplines, including general surgery and cardiovascular, slated for 2019.

At the heart of the system is its unique Surgical Haptic Intelligence Engine^TM (SHIE^TM), which is calibrated to mimic real life sensations of numerous medical tools and tissue variants. By combining immersive haptic technology with low cost, off-the-shelf hardware, Fundamental Surgery is democratizing surgical simulation through plug-and-play simplicity and a hitherto unachievable price point – less than a cost of one cadaver.

Fundamental Surgery licenses are now available in the U.S. with introductory prices starting at just $735 a month. For more information, please visit: www.fundamentalsurgery.com.

ABOUT FUNDAMENTALVR 

FundamentalVR is a technology and data insight business specialising in the intersection between immersive experiences and haptics to enhance medical training and outcomes. It’s SaaS platform, Fundamental Surgery, features VR Haptics technology that takes advantage of readily available virtual reality hardware to create a simulation system that can be used on any modern VR-enabled PC/laptop. Fundamental Surgery gives healthcare professionals around the world low-cost access to authentic surgical simulations with precise measurement and performance insight. FundamentalVR is based out of London and Boston.