If you’ve ever taken a CPR class, you’re familiar with medical training mannequins.
In many hospital settings, similar mannequins are still used to train professionals for key situations, like cardiac emergencies and operating room fires. This method of training is often costly and time-intensive, relying on an e-learning component to fill in the blanks.
A Colorado startup using virtual reality simulations to train medical professionals closed a large funding round Thursday that will help it broaden its content offerings, reduce training costs and improve outcomes.
Westminster-based Health Scholars closed a $17 million Series B on Jan. 16, with investments from Arboretum Ventures, Venture Investors, Capital Midwest Fund and OSF HealthCare.
The company uses VR simulations and a cloud-based training platform to manage, deliver and analyze clinical training.
“We proved that we could take something that is normally trained in a physical way and move it to software,” CEO Cole Sandau told Colorado Inno.
With Health Scholars’ VR program, medical professionals can train in operating room, resuscitation and obstetric scenarios, supported by learner management, simulation scheduling, reporting and performance assessment tools.
In one scenario, Health Scholars will put a subject into a cardiac emergency VR training where they command a team of virtual avatars using only their voice. From there, the program is able to pull data to determine how successful they were.
“We leverage the power of the platform to capture immense amount of data on the experiences,” Sandau said.
The new investment will enable Health Scholars to continue to introduce and expand new virtual technologies in both the hospital and public safety market.
The company plans to expand its VR content library, further developing the virtual learning platform to facilitate enterprise scale deployments and analytics.
“We’re really going to focus on evolving high-stakes, low-frequency types of training for events,” Sandau said. “When it goes wrong, it’s a big deal, but doesn’t happen often.”
This includes the company’s focus on operating room fires, a rare, but devastating emergency. According to the ECRI Institute, approximately 550 to 600 surgical fires occur each year.
As the capabilities of virtual reality technology increase and the cost of equipment decreases, Sandau said there is a real opportunity for Health Scholars to expand its services.
“More realism, more depth and more sophistication is what we’re trying to accomplish,” he said.
The company currently works with hospital systems across the country, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Cedars-Sinai and many more.
