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The Fundamental Surgery™ simulation platform that uses low-cost hardware to enable measurable and repeatable haptic sensations of pedicle screw insertion now has built-in learning and measurement modules in this latest software release, with more spine procedures set to follow in 2019.
Unlike other spine simulators that have limited or no haptic feedback, Fundamental have focused on creating hi-fidelity haptic and hi-res graphic environments. Attendees at the Eurospine conference in Barcelona this week including senior educators and surgeons indicated that the haptics and graphics in Fundamental Surgery far surpassed any others experienced in VR.
“We have brought together the world’s best haptic engineers, VR developers, CG artists and surgical educators to create the world’s most effective simulation experience, all under the directorship of our global medical panel of surgeons, and enhanced with feedback and input from neurosurgeons across the leading hospitals in the U.S.” said Chris Scattergood co-founder of FundamentalVR.
The lead surgeon on the development of the VR procedure is Professor Bronek Boszczyk, Head of Spinal Surgery at the Benedictus Hospital of the Artemed Group. Dr Boszcyk says;
“When looking at complex reconstructive spinal procedures, the cornerstone is the pedicle screw and how to insert it into the spine. What Fundamental can offer is the specific tactile feel of passing through the pedicle, rehearsing the angles and the required depth. We can create the muscle memory and subconscious learning effects, the same way that a musician learns the chords and scales and after a time this becomes intuitive”
The launch of the learning modules is driven by Peter Rainger, Chief Learning officer, who has previously created more than 100 surgical procedures in simulation and has worked with residency programmes across the world to integrate simulation into their training programmes.
Peter said of the launch “The online nature of our platform means we can continue to enhance the educational quality of our simulations for our residency programs. In this release we are launching pre-operative case-based learning and Intra-operatively we have included learning support tools that guide trainees on how to perform each surgical step safely. This also includes intuitive 3D visual overlays presented in VR, a kind of Augmented Reality within Virtual reality, to support trainees in developing their skills. Most excitingly we have introduced the first taste of our post-operative learning analytics to provide trainees with immediate feedback on their performance.”
ABOUT FUNDAMENTALVR
FundamentalVR is an educational technology company specialising in immersive experiences to enhance surgical education. It has developed Fundamental Surgery™ as a SaaS platform featuring VR Haptics technology that takes advantage of readily available virtual reality hardware to create a simulation system that can be used on any modern PC set up – even a laptop. Fundamental Surgery™ provides healthcare professionals around the world access to authentic surgical simulations at low-cost.
