Level Ex, which is best known for its medical video games for physicians and surgeons, announced the launch of its newest product – Virtual Technique Guides. This collaborative surgical training platform applies the multiplayer interactivity of cloud gaming to enable surgeons to perform virtual procedures with medical device sales representatives over the same web conferencing platform.
Why does it matter?
Virtual Technique Guides aims to close a critical training gap that emerged as the medical device industry was crippled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, impeding sales teams and restricting access to train surgeons, nurses, and technicians in hospital settings. Without in-person meetings with medical device representatives, surgeons have reverted to PowerPoint slides, IFU documentation, and passive videos to acquire device knowledge and refine surgical techniques.
In contrast, Virtual Technique Guides allow sales representatives to train surgeons located anywhere in the world, replicating any type of medical device, surgical procedure, patient type, or surgical complication. If a surgeon in Maine is having trouble with a specific step in a procedure, a trainer from a medical device company located in Boston can virtually meet with that surgeon within minutes to go through the procedure, step-by-step, in the Virtual Technique Guides remote training environment.
Users can access this environment on any mobile or desktop web browser by clicking on a web link or scanning a QR code — with no app to download or software to install. Sales representatives can continue their video conversation over the web conferencing platform of their choice with Virtual Technique Guides integrated into the experience. Compatible platforms include Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, and more.
The solution supports thousands of medical procedures in all 27 surgical specialties and subspecialties.
On the record
“Level Ex is known for accurately recreating the fluids, tissues, and visualizations needed to capture the most advanced surgical scenarios on a mobile device. In 2019, we saw the next opportunity to transcend the limitations of smartphone hardware: we began making substantial investments in cloud-gaming technology to enable more realistic simulation by leveraging compute resources in the cloud,” said Sam Glassenberg, founder and CEO of Level Ex. “When COVID-19 hit, this investment proved more important than we could ever have imagined. We had the capability to recreate that critical training dynamic between the surgeon and their sales rep seen in the physical OR.”
The context
Over the past year, Level Ex has recruited many of the top technologists and creatives from the video games industry-several of whom were instrumental in developing these new products. Examples include CTO Andy Glaister, who previously led Amazon’s game engine technology efforts and teams at Microsoft Games Studios and Microsoft DirectX, and Vice President, Studio Creative Director Jason VandenBerghe, who has led creative teams at top video game companies including Ubisoft (For Honor), Activision (Guitar Hero), and Electronic Arts. Level Ex’s elite game development team has worked hand-in-hand with top 10 medical device companies to enable their sales teams and swiftly connect them to surgeons using its years of experience building award-winning surgical training programs.
And if you want to know about the use of extended reality technologies in healthcare, make sure to check out our report entitled “XR in Healthcare.” It is readily available from our sister website DHbriefs from where you can buy the individual report or get it as part of the DHbriefs Premium Membership — which you can try for free for 7 days.