Using Virtual Reality to Help Train Specialized Workers

A new system from Marion Surgical combines VR and haptic feedback to help surgeons train and prepare for surgery. Jessica Henry shares the work.

In certain specialized fields, such as surgery, there’s no replacement for hands-on training. Until now, surgical training has depended on working with expensive and scarce human or pig cadavers, and in some procedures, such as removing kidney stones, exposure to x-ray radiation. Marion Surgical has created a system that combines virtual reality with sophisticated haptic feedback, enabling users to see the virtual operating room and patient and feel what it’s like to perform the procedure. What’s more, the system gathers performance metrics and helps evaluate the skill level of the user, so medical students can learn at their own pace and surgeons can practice complex techniques on a virtual version of the patient they’ll be operating on. Jessica Henry of Marion Surgical shares their development process at the Autodesk Technology Center in Toronto and what it means for all kinds of specialized training in the future.

About the speaker

Jessica Henry is the head of development at Marion Surgical, where she works with game developers, engineers, and surgeons to develop their virtual platforms. She’s a graduate of the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science at Queen’s University in Mechanical & Materials Engineering, with a specialization in biomechanical engineering.

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