The six medical schools in Virginia are exploring a partnership with Perspectus Technology, a virtual reality firm that hopes to bring its software to institutions across the country to transform medical training.
The firm presented its flagship product, a virtual reality software that allows users to view anatomical models and patient scans in 3D, to the six Virginia schools during a symposium at the University of Virginia in July. In the four months since, each school has continued to engage in talks with Perspectus to further explore a potential partnership, said the company’s Chief Operating Officer Erick Miranda.
Based in Fort Collins, Colorado, Perspectus is targeting both higher education and health care institutions across the country, where it believes its product can make a major impact in student training, patient education and cost reduction for such institutions.
One of the goals of the July consortium at the Virginia Association of Human Anatomical Sciences was to find alternatives to cadavers for research and training, as cost and availability of cadavers are becoming increasingly large barriers.
Cadavers cost around $2,000 each, not including the cost of safely storing and maintaining them, according to the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, if the person is suspected to have died of Covid-19-related causes, dissecting the body is considered hazardous and it can’t be used, which is creating a shortage in the much-needed medical training resource.
“Cadaver labs can cost between $3 million and $15 million. Our software might cost 5% of that,” Miranda said.
Companies that use Perspectus purchase an annual licensing fee for the VR software, which can be used on most typical gaming laptops with a VR headset, said Miranda, who declined to disclose the exact license fee. The virtual reality tool then allows users to view three dimensional models of cadavers, organs or other body parts so students can learn in full detail without actually cutting into a body.
“Instead of looking at an artist's rendering of a heart, you can actually upload a scan of a real heart,” Miranda said. “You can still see everything without having to incur the costs, time and complications of trying to secure these cadavers.”
With the company founded in 2014, Perspectus was created by Colorado State University professor Tod Clapp and has its roots in higher education, but Miranda said the company’s goal is to become popular in health care and commercial settings, as well.
The technology can also upload patient data, like CT or MRI scans, so medical professionals can check patients for injuries and abnormalities, as well as show that information to patients to help them visualize and understand their health.
So far, the company has partnered with institutions in California, Colorado, New York and West Virginia, Miranda said. He declined to disclose the company’s revenue. Its presence in West Virginia, as well as a relationship with a professor at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, drew the company to Virginia.
“We would like to start growing out from that Northeast area and gain more and more traction,” said Miranda. “We know that there's a lot of need there.”
The six medical schools in Virginia include the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in Richmond, the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg and the Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Lynchburg.