What you should know:
– Smile Train and BioDigital launched the first cleft surgery virtual reality (VR) platform experience at the IMSH Conference in Orlando, Florida.
– The platform uses a “metaverse operating room” to simulate surgery in Cleft lip and palate, a common birth condition that occurs when a baby’s lip or mouth does not form correctly during pregnancy. The condition can cause difficulty breathing, eating, and speaking. If left untreated, a cleft lip or palate can be fatal.
Expanding the horizons of surgery through integrated virtual reality
Virtual Surgery Simulator (VSS) VR Extension is a completely new technology that will allow surgeons from around the world to enter and collaborate together in virtual operating rooms. This new virtual reality platform will not only support safer surgery and better outcomes for patients with clefts, but also advance health equity Worldwide. This technology was designed to provide cost-effective education for medical professionals around the world and to close the gap in access to life-saving surgical care. While surgical treatment is an essential component of effective medical care, only 6 percent of the 313 million procedures performed worldwide each year take place in the world’s poorest countries, where more people live. one third of the world’s population. Approximately 5 billion people do not have access to safe, affordable, and timely surgical and anesthetic care.
There are several features that make the launch of this technology unique among VR platforms, including:
– A multi-user experience to allow a sense of presence within a virtual operating room, even when clinicians are in separate locations (Cleft Learning Center), allowing for hands-on tutoring in the OR even from afar;
– A adaptive methodology so that other institutions and medical team leaders, even outside of the cleft specialty, can apply similar approaches to training simulated emergencies and best practices;
– A network of cleft specialists willing to use this technology. The virtual reality extension released today builds on the existing Smile Train Virtual Surgery Simulator (VSS), launched in 2012 as a free web-accessible surgical simulator and mobile app that provides instructions for cleft lip and palate repair. by some of the best surgeons in the world. In 11 years, the original VSS has provided healthcare professionals in 141 countries with essential information on cleft anatomy and surgical techniques to repair cleft lip and cleft palate, and the new VSS VR extension will further enhance the surgeons’ ability to safely perform and deliver this surgery;
– Five modules already produced (four anatomical tours including unilateral and bilateral lip, a unit on how to respond to a patient with an obstructed airway), and more modules currently in development;
– The ability to draw on surfaces to indicate surgical marks;
– Simulated steps that guide the clinician through the steps to save the patient’s life during adverse events (Obstructed Airway module);
– Guided tours of the cleft anatomy, including a comparison of normal anatomy with bilateral and unilateral cleft anatomy; Y
– VR system will take advantage of the world’s largest library of 3D surgical slits
“The Virtual Surgery Simulator VR extension represents a blueprint for the future of global surgical training,” said Anne Arnold, Senior Director of Education and Training at Smile Train. “The technology enables next-level accessibility for surgeons and surgeons-in-training. For example, if the director of a resident program has a resident return to her hometown, the two of them can continue to meet in the metaverse with the lead surgeon providing hands-on mentoring from afar. And in the end, patients, families and communities will benefit the most from safer surgery and better access to care.”
