Toray Industries, Inc., and Jolly Good Inc. announced that they have jointly developed HotBalloon Ablation: A VR Tour. This virtual reality (VR) content is a platform for ablation training with Satake HotBalloon (see Glossary note 1), Toray’s catheter ablation system for treating paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
The content enables trainees to practice HotBalloon ablation procedures virtually, wherever and whenever they want. This platform will complement traditional on-site training with actual proctor’s procedure.
Remote controls will offer more flexible learning opportunities, enabling trainees to enhance their understanding of procedures and acquire skills more rapidly. Toray will make HotBalloon Ablation: A VR Tour services and content available to physicians and medical staffs this month.
There are around 720,000 people with atrial fibrillation in Japan (see Glossary note 2). Treatment generally necessitates advanced operative procedures. A physician inserts a catheter into the body and uses x-ray fluoroscopy to guide it into the heart.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for physicians and medical staffs to provide on-site training. This situation created an urgent need for a tool that does not involve physicians so they can limit their travel around medical facilities and also reduces crowding in clinical environment.
I n response to such voices from the medical field, Toray and Jolly Good filmed actual procedure performed by Dr. Shiro Nakahara, an assistant professor of Cardiology at Dokkyo Medical University, performing ablation at its Saitama Medical Center in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, and created 360 ° clinical practice VR. Dr. Nakahara is highly proficient in HotBalloon procedures.
The VR content employs OPEcloud VR (see Glossary note 3), Jolly Good’s clinical education platform, and that company’s Multi-Connection Remote VR Clinical System. This setup enables advanced medical teaching and training in clinical techniques without instructors and observers needing to physically gather together.
This remote system guides trainees to points on tablets that proctors wish to highlight. This streamlines VR sessions because all participants can share the same visuals, enjoy real time commentary and questions-and-answers in real time.