The provider training institute of Johnson & Johnson is planning to encourage the use of virtual reality headsets for surgeons who use their products.
It is partnering with startup Osso VR to distribute between 150 and 200 Oculus Quest headsets in the U.S. The goal is to expand the program worldwide. Before Oculus was introduced it was challenging to do this because the equipment was bulky. But now they have a more portable solution according to Sandra Humbles, vice president of global education solutions for Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies.
This technology improves surgical training, but has some drawbacks, according to the pioneer in this field, Dr. Richard Satava, emeritus professor of surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Satava says that users have to keep their heads still so that the VR display doesn’t move. Also, headsets can become uncomfortable over a period of time, say 30 minutes to an hour.
He also mentioned that J&J wished to invest in this technology with the hope that they would collect data on the people they are training.
The opportunity to collect training performance data is one of the core reasons for the company to partner with Osso VR. The company writes surgical training software running on Oculus business platform.
Humbles said that they aimed to prove that this makes a major difference. Thus, they were in search of a partner who could measure and report on performance data.
This Osso VR platform is training more than 1,000 surgeons a month said Dr. Justin Barad, Osso VR’s co-founder and CEO.
Barad also said that the goal was to get VR in the hands of each and every surgeon in every hospital around the world.