Apple Vision Pro is perhaps the best virtual tool yet for training surgeons, says a company that builds virtual experiences to medical training, adding that its gesture control system is “phenomenal.” Using Apple Vision Pro in training—similar to other VR systems—can reduce surgical training time by 40% to 200%.
Best of all, it develops competence before a doctor has to practice on a human patient.
“Our vision is all about getting to something we call pre-human competence, which is don’t practice on me, practice on a simulated version of me and then come into the OR and perform on me,” says Richard Vincent, CEO of Fundamental VR, in a recent TechFirst podcast.
That’s also true for other training software that runs on hardware like the Meta Quest 2, 3, or Pro. But there are some additional benefits to the new Apple platform.
Gesture control is strong and works with a wide range of motion, thanks to the multiple cameras on the front of the Vision Pro. And the video quality has “gone up another level,” Vincent says. While the company has tended to create its virtual reality scenarios at the highest possible visual quality and then bring the resolution down to target platforms’ capabilities, in this case they have not had to reduce the pixel count “very much at all.”
And while the Apple Vision Pro doesn’t come with any controllers like an Oculus Quest, it does enable haptics with third-party devices like a stylus. That means surgeons or phlebotomists can feel what they’re doing, even in a virtual simulation, using a tool like the Haply Inverse 3.
“In one scenario, you’re in an interventional cath lab,” Vincent says. “You feel the patient’s skin. You can interact with it using the needle. And then the key point is about placement of that needle into the patient and getting it in the right place.”
One key question: pricing.
At $3,500 plus whatever hardware might necessary for haptics, the Apple Vision Pro is not cheap. At $900 or so, you could buy three Meta Quest Pros for the same price.
That’s true, and it has an impact, but it will be temporary, say other experts.
“As a first version, AVP is at price point not affordable by most, however it will give answers to questions we never thought of and enable us as humans to do things we didn’t think were possible,” says Danny Goel, CEO of Precision OS, another surgical training platform. “Apple coming into the market is a significant validation both from a business perspective and psychologically by normalizing wearing a device on your face.”
A two-day lab in which medical device companies train surgeons on new tools or procedures costs almost $5,000, Precision OS says. So having a virtual experience that achieves similar results is actually fairly cost-effective, especially given the doctor now has an Apple Vision Pro to use personally.
Vincent agrees.
“Compared to the alternative costs, it actually isn’t really relevant … $3,500 at the base level, that’s really not an issue at all.”
Of course, Apple Vision Pro is only available in the U.S. right now, although Apple CEO Tim Cook told Chinese reporters that it will be coming to China this year. Given the initial wave of sales will have slowed in the U.S., you’d have to think Apple is already planning roll-outs in Europe and elsewhere for 2024 as well.
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