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This week, Saskatchewan-based startup Luxsonic has secured Health Canada’s Class 2 medical device authorization for its virtual reality suite, SieVRt, which will be used in diagnostic radiology.
Doctors can use the software on VR headsets to view 3D radiology images. Specifically, this new designation will allow clinicians to work remotely and diagnose patients off-site.
The tool can also be used to help students, training participants, and physicians obtain more medical imaging tools. The company has already launched a basic, educational and collaborative module at SieVRt because they do not require federal regulatory authorization.
The company plans to bring its technology to the United States and notes that it expects FDA approval in early 2022.
WHY IT MATTERS
The biggest change in this authorization is to release doctors to work remotely. During the coronavirus pandemic, we saw a radical shift toward working from home. In fact, a According to the Gallup survey, 33% of U.S. workers always work remotely and 25% sometimes work remotely. However, many professions cannot change to this model. The company raises this as a way to potentially change the radiology workflow.
“Radiologists cannot easily work remotely, as many people did during COVID-19. They have a highly specialized and expensive workflow that requires them to work exclusively in their office, ”said Mike Wesolowski, CEO and co-founder of Luxsonic.
“Now that Health Canada has approved SieVRt, radiologists will be able to take their own personalized virtual office wherever they go. With SieVRt and portable VR headsets, they have all the tools they need to remotely diagnose patients.”
Wesolowski also gave the case for the use of this technology that is being implemented to help diagnose people in rural areas or in low-income countries who may not have access to radiology services.
THE GREAT TREND
There is currently an increase in vendor-oriented virtual reality tools. Earlier this month, San Francisco-based Osso VR raised $ 27 million in funding for its VR tool, which helps surgeons plan operations. Also based in London FundamentalVR created a tool to help surgeons plan and train for operations. Touch Surgery, which also works in the medical VR training tool space, closed a $ 70 million funding round in 2020.
Research outside Stanford University found that physicians who used virtual reality to manipulate images of splenic artery aneurysms in 3D spaces had more confidence in entering a procedure than when using standard volume rendering software.