LONDON – 27th August 2019 – Today, FundamentalVR, pioneers of immersive HapticVR^TM training technology, which combines virtual reality (VR) with haptics (sense of touch), has announced its educational platform, Fundamental Surgery, received Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation for its entire current portfolio of surgical training simulations by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.  Earlier this year, Fundamental Surgery became the first surgical simulation with HapticVR™ to receive 6 CPD points for its Total Hip Replacement (Posterior Approach) training simulation. Now, the platform’s additional simulations are also accredited, which means that each simulation is now confirmed as an activity that demonstrates sufficient educational value to contribute to individual surgeons’ CPD, for which 6 CPD points can be claimed.

CPD is set by General Medical Council (GMC) as activity outside of postgraduate training that demonstrates surgeons are continuing to improve and practice their skills and performance. The Royal College of Surgeons of England accredits activities ranging from educational days and conferences that are in line with the GMC’s guidelines and the number of points each activity counts towards each trainee’s annual CPD points.

To maintain professional standards, surgeons must accrue 50 CPD points a year (250 over a 5 year revalidation cycle). With this accreditation, Fundamental Surgery’s simulations are confirmed as activities that demonstrates sufficient educational value to contribute to the CPD for which 6 CPD points can be claimed.

Named as one of the best inventions of 2018 by Time magazine and 2019 winners of the SXSW Innovation Award for VR/AR & MR, the Fundamental Surgery platform was launched in August 2018. It combines VR with cutting-edge haptics to create a scalable ‘flight simulator’ experience for trainee and qualified surgeons, allowing them to experience and navigate the same visuals, sounds and feelings they would during a real surgical procedure.

What sets Fundamental Surgery apart from other solutions is that it is designed to be equipment agnostic, compatible with any VR-enabled laptop, VR headset or haptic device enabling it to be delivered at a fraction of the cost of traditional simulations. Furthermore, its remote data analytics and data dashboard covering surgical skills and knowledge provide invaluable insight into surgical capability and education progression.

While other simulations are limited to visual and audio interactions, Fundamental Surgery takes it to a new level with HapticVR^TM, its proprietary technology that adds a real-time sense of touch. At the heart of the system is the unique Surgical Haptic Intelligence Engine^TM (SHIE^TM), which is calibrated by a leading team of surgeons to mimic real-life sensations of numerous medical tools and tissue variants within a submillimeter accuracy of resistance.

“Our mission has always been to provide surgeons and trainees with a solution that they could use to train and maintain their skills anywhere, providing them with the visuals, feelings and sounds they would expect during real surgery,” said Richard Vincent, CEO and Founder of FundamentalVR. “Receiving accreditation for all of our current simulation offerings by the Royal College of Surgeons of England validates our efforts. We are looking forward to creating and releasing additional simulations in multiple practice areas to help as many surgeons as possible hone their skills.”

The platform currently supports a range of orthopedic procedures, which are confirmed as an activity that demonstrates sufficient educational value to contribute to individual surgeons’ CPD, for which 6 CPD points can be claimed. The simulations include: Spinal Pedicle Screw, Total Hip Arthroplasty (Posterior), Total Hip Arthroplasty (Anterior) and Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Today, Fundamental Surgery is deployed with a number of medical institutions including Mayo Clinic and UCLA in the U.S., UCLH in the U.K. and Sana in Germany.