Genentech Uses Virtual Reality to Train Eye Surgeons
February 06 2019 - 6:47PM
Dow Jones News
By Sara Castellanos
Genentech, a division of Roche Holding AG, is using virtual
reality as a training tool for eye surgeons in a clinical trial
that executives expect will be the beginning of widespread use of
the technology.
Over the past year, more than 150 surgeons have used VR to
simulate a surgical procedure treating wet age-related macular
degeneration, an eye disease that affects more than 1 million
people age 50 and older in the U.S.
The surgery requires the implant in the eye of a device, roughly
the size of a grain of rice, that continuously releases a drug for
the treatment of the disease.
If the device in the clinical trial is approved by the Food and
Drug Administration in a few years, Genentech expects to train the
more than 2,200 retinal specialists in the U.S. Virtual reality
will be a major component of that training in order for them to
master the procedure, the company said.
"Historically, surgeons had to learn on patients. What we're
trying to do here is see all the possible permutations that can
occur, in virtual reality, so that when [the surgeons] are actually
doing this on a patient, they're ready," said Anthony Adamis,
senior vice president of development innovation for Genentech.
In virtual reality, users wear headsets in which they can see
digitized representations of the real world. Movements, such as as
turning one's head, and other actions have outcomes within the
digital representation.
Other industries outside of health care use virtual reality in
training. United Parcel Service Inc., for example, i s using
virtual reality to simulate the experience of driving its iconic
brown delivery trucks before new drivers hit the road. Walmart Inc.
recently developed a management training program in which much of
the training takes place in virtual reality.
Worldwide spending on virtual reality and augmented reality,
which superimposes digital images onto a user's view of the real
world, is expected to reach nearly $20.4 billion this year,
according to market intelligence firm International Data Corp.
That's up from an estimated $12.1 billion in 2018.
Genentech took inspiration from the commercial aviation sector,
where flight has become safer in part because of simulated
training, Dr. Adamis said.
Some of the VR training for eye surgeons in the clinical trial
takes place at Genentech's South San Francisco campus. The surgeons
use a workstation that includes a virtual reality headset and a
physical replica of the human eye and replicas of surgical tools.
Surgeons are trained in virtual reality on how to implant the
device that contains the drug and also how to refill the device.
The surgeons can move the physical replicas of tools onto the
physical replica of the human eye, which also appear digitized in
the headset, to simulate the act of surgery.
The VR headsets and technology are provided by Germany-based
VRmagic.
Genentech has invested "well over" $1 million over the past
three years in virtual reality equipment and development of the
surgical training program, said Christopher Brittain, interim
global head of clinical ophthalmology for Genentech.
A 2017 study in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American
Academy of Ophthalmology, showed that novice cataract surgeons
showed significant improvement after training in virtual reality
simulations.
Until the mid-2000s, there was treatment for wet age-related
macular degeneration, but it only slowed the progression of the
disease, which could result in eventual blindness. There was also
no way to restore vision loss until the approval of a Genentech
drug in 2006, when the rate of blindness from the disease dropped
by about 50%, Dr. Brittain said. Current treatment requires eye
injections as often as monthly.
If approved by the FDA, the surgical implant to treat the
disease would go a long way in reducing the burden of having to
visit the doctor monthly, which is why virtual reality surgical
training is so critical, he said. "Virtual reality is really going
to make sure that every surgeon is as ready as they possibly can be
to perform these surgeries," Dr. Brittain said.
Write to Sara Castellanos at sara.castellanos@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 06, 2019 18:32 ET (23:32 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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