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How Virtual Reality Could Reform Surgical Training
The use of virtual reality technology in surgical training could prepare doctors globally for complex situations, decrease surgical complications, and improve patient outcomes.
While the gaming industry has quickly adopted virtual reality (VR), the healthcare industry is increasingly transforming this technology and repurposing it to achieve better treatment and patient outcomes, especially in surgical training applications.
“This technology is becoming mature and being adopted, but adoption of anything new in healthcare is slow,” Justin Barad, MD, founder and CEO of Osso VR, told LifeSciencesIntelligence at the 2022 HLTH conference. Even at large academic centers, surgeons struggle to keep up with the rapid pace of technological innovation.
Because the current surgical training and assessment system has been slow to integrate innovative techniques, some surgeons are left unprepared to navigate complex situations in the operating room, putting patients' lives at risk. However, next-generation VR technology could play an essential role in addressing these gaps by standardizing surgical training.
“This platform takes training to a whole different level of being able to learn, repeat, reflect, iterate, and understand better, and it has the largest medical illustration team, which is why it feels so natural,” shared Ami B. Bhatt, MD, FACC, Chief Innovation Officer of the American College of Cardiology.
The ability to repeat a specific on-demand procedure as often as the practitioner desires allows for a shorter learning curve and the ability to assess proficiency. Additional VR practice improves accuracy and allows its users to develop new skills in a safe environment.
“We are not trying to fully substitute for in-person training,” explained Barad. “By and large, we are making very rare in-person training that surgeons get to do one or two times as the very last step in what is a 50–100 case learning curve.”
Surgical Benefits of VR
In a 2020 UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine clinical validation study focused on first-year medical students, VR training on the Osso VR platform improved participants’ overall surgical performance by 230% compared to traditional methods. Additionally, the VR-trained participants finished the procedure 20% faster (on average) and completed 38% more steps correctly in the procedure-specific checklist than the traditionally trained group.
Although traditional surgical education has remained the same for quite some time, healthcare organizations are quickly embracing VR technology for its accessibility, time and cost savings, repeatability, objectivity, and hands-on experience and are hoping to see a wave of VR standardization in clinical settings.
Given the demanding and fast-paced healthcare environment, “we have a real problem with burnout of cardiovascular clinicians right now,” highlighted Bhatt. “Although we have the technology, implementation requires people to rethink what's important and what's going to be good for them and their patients.”
Although simulations are becoming fundamental to healthcare education, most simulators require considerably more resources than traditional education at a time when global healthcare systems and educational institutions struggle to keep up with increasing demands and limited resources.
“Even in remote regions in the United States or low- and middle-income countries, it is not hard to gain access to this technology,” reassured Barad. “This could be accessible to anyone who can get a Meta Quest 2 headset and motion hand controllers.”
Meta Quest 2 — formerly called Oculus Quest 2 — is an advanced, low-cost, all-in-one virtual reality headset priced between $349 and $499 online, depending on GB capacity. This provides a cheaper, on-demand alternative to human cadavers or patient simulators, ranging in cost from $10,000 to $100,000 depending on the brand, type, features, and supported services.
Because only 5–20% of low- and middle-income countries have timely access to safe and affordable surgical procedures, the use of affordable VR gaming equipment could help practitioners worldwide master surgical procedures that are prohibitively expensive while decentralizing training.
“Often, surgeons can't get to the ideal number of training procedures in underserved areas and certainly not globally. So, it is important to have more exposure and do the same procedure multiple times,” emphasized Bhatt.
With over 100 high-fidelity training modules available, Osso VR’s platform allows surgeons to practice procedures with a team or independently before walking into the operating room, explained Bhatt. And according to Barad, the platform will enable surgeons to train using the latest medical devices and techniques innovations.
To increase the reality and manipulability of virtual objects in the program, Barad revealed that this VR platform features cutaneous haptic feedback technology to communicate with its users and provide a more immersive experience.
In addition to medical schools, numerous orthopedic medical device manufacturers are working with the company to create training modules and implementation guidelines. As healthcare providers continue to use this software, muscle memory will allow surgeons to focus on precision and technique confidently.
As Barad mentioned, this software platform is meant to supplement in-person educational training, making learning fun, independent, and stress-free as the complexity of medical technology and techniques advances.
Because no two patients are the same, “something different happens every time a unique patient is on the table,” Bhatt clarified. “Every patient needs respect and is a unique being. However, surgeons walk in better trained with their hands and better prepared to recognize what steps come next."
