FundamentalVR, a London-based company with a virtual reality training and data analysis technology platform, has announced a three-year strategic alliance with Mayo Clinic.
Through the collaboration, the organizations will jointly develop surgical VR simulation and education products. FundamentalVR can leverage the expertise of Mayo Clinic’s surgeons, data scientists and clinical research.
“The product is only as good as the clinical input it gets,” FundamentalVR CEO Richard Vincent said in a phone interview.
Initially, the organizations will focus their efforts on general surgery. But going forward, they plan to move into other areas, such as 3D modeling and robotic and patient-specific simulation derived from DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) data.
Vincent added that none of the tools the organizations develop together will be confined to the Mayo Clinic. Instead, they’ll be available on Fundamental Surgery, FundamentalVR’s haptic and VR medical simulation platform.
Additionally, the current release of Fundamental Surgery is live at Mayo’s simulation centers in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Vincent described success in this endeavor with Mayo as creating cutting-edge simulations and programs. He also considers it a means to acceleration.
“We built a significant operation already,” he said. “But what this does is allow us to take it up to the next level.”
While FundamentalVR has been working in beta with other institutions, Mayo Clinic is the first U.S. hospital the company has formed this type of joint development agreement with, Vincent noted.
In addition to the alliance with Mayo, the company has financing news to share. Tern PLC, a London-based investment company focused on the IoT space, has made an additional $1.4 million (£1.1 million) investment in FundamentalVR. Tern’s holding in FundamentalVR has increased from 18.3 percent to 34.7 percent.
“FundamentalVR has proven its agility to rapidly deliver on its strategy since our initial investment,” Tern CEO Al Sisto said in a statement. “We are really pleased to provide this follow-on investment in this innovative company.”
Photo: FundamentalVR
