FundamentalVR, pioneers of immersive training technology for the medical community, has integrated groundbreaking HaptX Gloves on its Fundamental Surgery platform.

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Named as one of the best inventions of 2018 by Time magazine, the Fundamental Surgery platform gives us a glimpse of the near future where surgeons can use their entire hand and fingers as part of a virtual simulation educational experience.

It combines virtual reality (VR) with state-of-the-art haptics to create a scalable ‘flight simulator’ experience for trainee and qualified surgeons, allowing them to experience and navigate the same visuals, sounds and feelings they would during a real surgical procedure, reports Fundamental Surgery.

Fundamental surgery is designed to be compatible with any laptop, VR headset or haptic device. At the heart of the platform is the unique Surgical Haptic Intelligence Engine (SHIE), which is calibrated to mimic real life sensations of numerous medical tools and tissues with great accuracy. Thus, the HaptX Gloves make each finger and the entire hand into a virtual reality, haptic controller.

“When it comes to surgical training simulations, a sense of touch is a game changer, but has traditionally only been possible with immobile equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Richard Vincent, CEO, FundamentalVR. “The Fundamental Surgery platform delivers highly sophisticated tactile feedback at a fraction of the cost through a software approach that can work with a range of haptic devices. Our platform currently works with haptic arms, but is designed to evolve as hardware innovations allow new products such as HaptX Gloves to come to market. We are proud to work with industry leaders such as HaptX and are excited to demonstrate how HaptX Gloves integrated into our Surgical Haptics Intelligence Engine takes the sensation of surgery to an exciting new and natural level.”

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Today, numerous medical institutions including Mayo Clinic and UCLA in the US, UCLH in the UK and Sana in Germany deploy Fundamental Surgery with initial training packages focused on the orthopedic surgery. The procedures it currently supports include Spinal Pedicle Screw, Total Hip Arthroplasty (Posterior), Total Hip Arthroplasty (Anterior) and Total Knee Arthroplasty.