Background

Novartis had a challenging requirement to develop a reproducible simulation of administration of ocular gene therapy using virtual reality. FundamentalVR created a haptic simulation, for a sub-retinal injection, which has been reviewed by several leading KOLs and is a very exciting medical education tool for surgeons to train on subretinal injection.

The Business Challenge

Novartis expanded by using a novel method for medical education, a new way of training and skills transfer for their hard to administer, ocular gene therapy drug, which could be integrated into the medical education program for treating patients with inherited retinal dystrophies. Social distancing/pandemic issues added further complications and put face-to-face training programs at risk.

The Fundamental Surgery platform was configured in conjunction with Novartis’ key opinion leaders and the resulting dual-user VR system employs the latest HapticVR^TM technology, to create the precise sense of touch for this intricate sub-retinal procedure, allowing consultant level Ophthalmic surgeons to acquire the necessary skills transfer.

Results

The VR surgical simulation for the application of treatment with an ocular gene-drug provides an accurate, easily accessible, and cost-effective alternative to existing modalities. Due to the centralized and cloud-hosted nature of the platform, on-going feedback and training requirements from KOLs are able to be incorporated and delivered back out through the cloud seamlessly.  This shows that the FundamentalVR platform can effectively improve the education of surgeons in the delivery of ocular gene therapies. Furthermore, training has been unhindered with remote training events being delivered globally using the platform.