Med-tech company seeks £400k for 360° training videos

A medical training start-up company is looking to raise £400,000 to create a series of 360° videos to improve surgical education.

London-based Medical Realities aims to create virtual and augmented reality training tutorials which it hopes to provide medical practitioners and students with the surgeon’s eye view of medical procedures such as treatment of open fractures and emergency cesarean section delivery.

The company, which published the world’s first 360° video of surgery in March this year (see below), said that it aims to distribute the videos through training hospitals and apps. Viewers would be immersed in the training through watching the videos via headsets such as Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard.

Earlier this year, OT interviewed Dr Shafi Ahmed, a consultant surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust and one of the founders of Medical Realities, to see how Google Glass was being used in theatre.

Dr Ahmed described how he used wearable eye-tech in theatre to stream live surgery and to answer questions from students.

Commenting on the call for funding, Dr Ahmed said: “Despite huge advances in surgery, the way in which surgeons are trained hasn’t changed in the last 200 years. Virtual and augmented reality technologies offer many benefits to the healthcare industry, including better access to knowledge and the ability to provide a more immersive, hands-on surgical simulation.”

He added: “Our pioneering training tutorials will take surgical theatre from Victorian times to the digital age and revolutionise how surgeons around the world gain knowledge.”