2022 forecast: AR, VR poised to send MedTech into the next dimension

Virtual reality headsets have been around for years, but for much of their history they have largely been confined to the realm of novelty accessories for high-tech gamers.

While virtual reality and its even more immersive sister, augmented reality, have been slowly infiltrating the medical field in recent years, it wasn’t until 2021 that the dam broke and unleashed an avalanche of augmented reality and reality. virtual in the industry. The COVID-19 pandemic brought new value to virtualization, and last year marked a turning point where many of those implausible technologies finally became a reality, backed by an avalanche of venture capital funds and regulatory green light.

If 2021 was the year that immersive technologies finally found their place in medical technology, it stands to reason that 2022, in turn, would be the year that patients, providers, and technology developers finally begin to reap the benefits of RA. and VR.

The odds are good: A recent market research report estimated that between 2021 and 2026, the virtual reality healthcare market will grow nearly 35% annually, rising to more than $ 40 billion by the end of that. weather. That’s a far cry from the comparatively meager $ 2.7 billion space virtual reality created in medicine in 2020.

Reality check: setting the stage for immersive technology acquisition
Among the areas of medical technology that are already undergoing significant changes induced by VR and AR is ophthalmology. Heru, a spinout from the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami, spent the year riding that wave. After racking up $ 30 million in venture capital funding in May, it launched its virtual reality-based vision testing platform re: Vive in August and had already started rolling out the second-generation version of the platform in November.

The updated platform, accessible through commercially available headphones like those from Microsoft and Magic Leap, performs six tests, looking for color blindness, contrast sensitivity, visual field deficiencies and more. More tests are already in the works, including those using AR technology to identify the exact gaps in a patient’s field of vision, allowing for hyper-personalized vision correction.

Meanwhile, Luminopia obtained de novo premarket approval from the FDA in October for its own vision-focused tool. Luminopia One offers a prescription-only treatment for lazy eye in children, in the form of TV shows and movies that are viewed through a virtual reality viewer for one hour a day. The commercial launch of digital therapeutics is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2022.

Elsewhere in the digital therapeutics arena, AppliedVR made history in November with the first FDA clearance for a virtual reality device to treat low back pain. EaseVRx guides patients through games, lessons, and exercises supported by cognitive behavioral therapy and other practices to help relieve their chronic pain in short, solo sessions over an eight-week period.

But perhaps even more ripe for the revolution through virtual reality and augmented reality is the field of robotic surgery. Both Activ Surgical and Beyeonics staggered into consecutive multi-million dollar funding rounds this year for their immersive technology to guide surgeons through procedures.

Activ secured $ 45 million in B-series funding for its suite of AR overlays that add real-time analytics and guidance to surgical monitors, while Beyeonics said it would spend its $ 36 million on continued development of its head-mounted monitor. , which uses AR and artificial intelligence to fully immerse surgeons within the power of a microscopic camera.

There’s also Pixee Medical, which got a go-ahead from the FDA in April for its Knee + system, complete with AR goggles. While wearing the glasses during a knee replacement, a surgeon can view real-time measurements of joint angles and planned incisions within their field of view, meaning they can move quickly and efficiently through the procedure without having to repeatedly re-familiarize yourself with the surgical site each time. time they look away to see a separate monitor.

Outside of the operating room, NuVasive is now looking to virtual reality to deliver high-tech, easy-to-access surgical training. In October, it turned to orthopedic surgery virtual reality developer PrecisionOS to develop an international training program for its X360 minimally invasive spine surgery system. By incorporating your training module into a virtual reality viewer in 20 languages, NuVasive will be able to familiarize more surgeons, academics, and vendors around the world with your system, without the need for dead bodies.

Making futuristic technology a (virtual) reality in 2022
These and other companies are setting the stage for virtual and augmented reality technologies to take center stage in 2022, and many more have already begun to explain exactly how they will do so in the year ahead.

NuVasive partner PrecisionOS will begin implementing its new FDA-cleared InVisionOS surgical planning system early this year. The system works with a hospital’s existing image database to convert CT scans into 3D images, then sends them to a virtual reality headset, where surgeons can explore the findings to map out a procedure.

The new year may also usher in an FDA approval for Altoida, which gained groundbreaking device status from the agency in August for its suite of RA tests for Alzheimer’s disease, bringing immersive diagnostics significantly closer to the widespread use. Another new product combining AR and VR may also be on the horizon, if Medtronic’s work with VR developer Surgical Theater proves successful in its mission to translate flight simulator technology into real-time brain surgery guidance.

Meanwhile, in a year-long initiative launched this summer, AppliedVR and Curebase announced that they would pool their heads (and their VR expertise) to evaluate the use of a 3D viewer and glasses to conduct clinical trials from the comfort of the homes of participants.

And there is much more to come from innovators like those at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, which introduced the first Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health in October, with an area dedicated to the study of AR and VR in medicine, adding yet another. to the long list of signs that immersive technology is taking hold in healthcare for the long term, through 2022 and beyond. Tansu-Uh