Untethered VR Surgical
Solutions turns VR from a Training Tool into a Marketing Tool
For immediate release: 7:00 AM CST - 10/15/19 - St. Paul MN
Is the Oculus Quest
Powerful Enough to Deliver Portable Surgical Simulations?
Medical animation and surgical
simulation developer, Ghost Productions, Inc. has completed feasibility testing
on the Oculus Quest cordless virtual reality headset and the results are
promising. Their tests challenged the medical rendering capabilities of the
wireless VR headset and while it was not capable of delivering photo-realistic
imagery it could interact with surgical anatomy in real time. These findings
allow for a profound shift in VR’s adoption within the medical industry that
has been slow to take advantage of the many benefits VR’s simulation-based
training can provide.
“The ability to deliver highly functional
surgical training simulations in VR without needing a cord attached to a
powerful gaming PC or a laptop eliminates the largest blocker we face when it
comes to getting our clients to sign on to develop VR content,” said
Leo Hennen, head of sales at 1994, . Leo added, “The VR surgical programs we’ve
produced were intended for use primarily at tradeshows or permanent installations
at medical training centers. Now that portability is possible, medical sales
reps can bring them anywhere and within two minutes of setup, allow doctors a
hands-on experience with their surgical devices and implants on a virtual
patient.” Making VR a tool that surgical device sales reps can easily utilize
in their demonstration arsenal enables a profound shift in medical VR, from
turning it from a training tool into a marketing tool, and with it, an
exponential increase in the available budget medical companies are willing to
spend on a rollout.
Limitations of
a Portable VR Platform
While the VR development team at
Ghost Productions encountered some specific hardware limitations that were not
an issue with PC based VR simulations, they believe they will be able to
develop functional workarounds for the majority of their client’s surgical
procedures. Soft-tissue manipulation, like cutting skin, tendons, and muscle
tissue with a scalpel requires computational gymnastics that overwhelm the
Quest’s tiny Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. Though these limitations create
challenges for simulating surgical procedures for medical specialties like
urology and cardiology, other areas of medicine like orthopedics, dental, and
neurology will remain largely unaffected. In time, it is likely that increases
in microprocessor rendering capability will increase to the point where even
these challenges are a thing of the past.
Ghost Productions isn’t waiting
around for hardware developers and have launched their first VR surgical
project designed specifically for portable VR hardware like the Oculus
Quest. Their client, a spinal implant
developer in St. Paul, MN, Spineology, has hired Ghost Productions to make a
simulation that allows surgeons, nurses, and assistants to experience their
innovative devices, tools, and surgical procedures virtually and even connect
with their sales reps remotely using virtual telepresence. “We’re committed to
offer the surgeons that use our products the finest training possible and the
portability of the Oculus Quest makes it possible to use it everywhere, whether
that be in clinics, conferences, or shipped over-night to just about anywhere
in the world” stated Spineology’s CEO, John Booth.
Founded
in1994, Ghost Productions, Inc. is a pioneering leader in 3D medical
animation and visualization. Ghost Productions has produced projects for the
largest medical device and pharmaceutical companies in the world including,
Abbott Laboratories, Cardinal Health, Bausch & Lomb, Johnson & Johnson,
Medtronic, and Stryker.
Figure 1:Oculus Rift S
Figure 2:Oculus Quest
Ghost Productions
Leo Hennen
651-633-1163
The
names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks
of their respective owners. Images provided for reproduction courtesy
of Ghost Productions, Inc.
