Dr. Brian Fiani talks VR, internet hosting Metaverse backbone seminar

Neurosurgeon Brian Fiani, DO, grew to become a pioneer in the way forward for backbone surgical procedure schooling in December. As a part of the Minimally Invasive Backbone Symposium in New York, Dr. Fiani donned a digital actuality headset and welcomed members internationally in a Metaverse backbone surgical procedure seminar.

The Metaverse, a part of Fb and Instagram’s guardian firm Meta, is a digital actuality house that may be accessed via wearable know-how. In skilled settings, the Metaverse can be utilized to create virtual meetings that mirror the expertise of seeing folks in a bodily house.

For his classes, Dr. Fiani of New York Metropolis-based Weill Cornell Medication/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, labored with NonNocere, a German firm utilizing VR to decentralize medical schooling. The partnership was “a no-brainer” for him.

“This was the natural evolution by moving things to the Metaverse, where one can be in this virtual reality world with people from an infinite amount of countries anywhere on the planet and all meet in one location, especially for spine surgery where there’s a very international presence,” Dr. Fiani informed Becker’s.

Per week earlier than the convention, Dr. Fiani stated he practiced his classes with a VR headset and hand controls, one thing that took time to grasp.  

“If you want to draw something on a whiteboard in the Metaverse auditorium, or if you want to do preoperative planning about the size and trajectory of your screws for spinal instrumentation, learning what buttons and how to place a screw and how to elongate the screw and change the size and shape was the biggest challenge.” 

Dr. Fiani’s displays included 4 simulated surgical procedures: degenerative backbone surgical procedure, spinal tumor surgical procedure, revision backbone surgical procedure and deformity backbone surgical procedure. He included CT and MRI scans, slideshows and a digital anatomy lab. 

“What was cool about [the virtual lab] was when they built these constructed models for the anatomy portion, I could do things that I cannot do in the real world,” he stated. “For example, in one case, there was significant compression on the spinal cord and I was able to select out the bone and the ligament in order to actually see the compressive reshaping of the spinal cord, and you would not otherwise be able to see such things without the help of that virtual reality software.”

About 50 folks used digital actuality headsets to hitch Dr. Fiani in a digital auditorium that included a 3D backbone mannequin that in actual life could be about 30 ft tall. One other 20 watched the session stay on a display screen.

“The participants were in awe,” he stated. “[They] enjoyed the audio-visual quality, which has haptic feedback as well. They enjoyed the lifelike spine anatomy models, the projection of the imported CT and MRI scans and the surgical simulation features. It was really fun because the surgeons were like children discovering new toys on Christmas morning.”

Wanting forward, Dr. Fiani has plans to stay with VR and is planning a backbone convention that might happen fully within the Metaverse. He stated VR has potential to serve backbone surgeons in any respect phases of their careers.

“The future for using virtual reality has immense educational benefits, including case presentations and grand rounds, particularly for surgical training programs such as residencies and fellowships,” he stated. “But even for the more experienced surgeons, this type of software with virtual reality and Metaverse offers them the ability to practice surgeries repeatedly and even use new equipment to improve workflow and decrease operating time.”