Fundamental Surgery Expands Global Medical Panel

Fundamental Surgery, pioneers of immersive HapticVR training technology, which combines virtual reality (VR) with haptics (sense of touch), has announced the expansion of their Global Medical Panel with Dr. Yousuf Khalifa, Dr. Ivan Wong, and Dr. Areena D’souza as their latest members. In their roles, they will they will provide scientific and clinical guidance in the development of additional surgical education and training platforms. 
 
A respected expert in ophthalmology, Khalifa will provide scientific and clinical advice regarding Fundamental Surgery’s platform to offer ophthalmology surgical simulations. Wong, current president of the Arthroscopy Association of Canada and a professional with a wealth of experience in educational development within orthopedics, and D’souza, an experienced orthopedic spinal surgeon, join the team to create and enhance the platform’s orthopedic simulations. All will work with the Global Medical Panel to guide the strategic development of the platform, educational content and simulations.
 
Dr. Yousuf Khalifa 
Khalifa specializes in cornea external disease and refractive surgery. He is currently an associate professor of Ophthalmology at Emory University School of Medicine Section of Cornea, External Disease and Refractive Surgery. He also serves as chief of service of ophthalmology at Grady Memorial Hospital and in the cornea service at Emory Eye Center. Khalifa earned his medical degree at the Medical College of Georgia. He went to the University of California San Francisco’s Proctor Fellowship as a Heed Fellow, which he followed up with a fellowship in cornea and refractive surgery at the University of Utah’s Moran Eye Center. Khalifa is paid by Fundamental Surgery for his service on the medical panel and the opinions expressed by him in association with such service are his own and do not constitute or imply endorsement by Emory University or Emory Healthcare.
 
Dr. Ivan Wong 
Wong is an associate professor at Dalhousie University and an Orthopedic Surgeon at the QEII Health Sciences Center in Halifax, NS where he specializes in hip, knee and shoulder arthroscopy. He is devoted to his patients, constantly striving to innovate and make procedures less invasive and painful with shorter downtime. Globally, Wong helps train medical students, residents and fellows in sport medicine and arthroscopic procedures. In addition, Wong is a founding member and current president of the Arthroscopy Association of Canada. He is also research chair of the Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA).
 
Dr. Areena D’souza 
Spinal surgeon D’souza hails from India, but is currently based in Germany. She is the first female Indian orthopedic surgeon to be awarded a fellowship in spinal surgery. She is soon going to take a post as a junior spinal surgeon at the Schoen Klinik Vogtareuth. Prior to her time in Germany, she completed the prestigious two-year ASSI fellowship in spinal surgery at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in New Delhi, India. She also completed an 18-month Spinal Surgery Fellowship at Nottingham University Hospitals.
 
“Fundamental Surgery relies on the world-class clinical insight from medical professionals to ensure our mission of providing safe virtual spaces to learn, practice, rehearse and assess surgical skills and knowledge to medical professionals and trainees around the world. I couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Dr. Khalifa, Dr. Wong and Dr. D’souza to our Global Medical Panel to help us continue this effort,” said Richard Vincent, founder and CEO of FundamentalVR. “These individuals are all leaders in their respective fields and will enhance our offerings to surgeons and trainees, which in turn will better surgical performances and improve patient safety and outcomes.”
 
Named as one of the best inventions of 2018 by Time magazine and 2019 winners of the SXSW Innovation Award for VR/AR & MR, the Fundamental Surgery platform was launched in August 2018. It combines virtual reality with cutting-edge haptics to create a scalable ‘flight simulator’ experience for trainee and qualified surgeons, allowing them to experience and navigate the same visuals, sounds and feelings they would during a real surgical procedure. 
 
Today, Fundamental Surgery is deployed with a number of medical institutions including Mayo Clinic and UCLA in the U.S., UCLH in the U.K. and Sana in Germany with initial training packages focused on the orthopedic surgical disciplines. The procedures it currently supports include Spinal Pedicle Screw, Total Hip Arthroplasty (Posterior), Total Hip Arthroplasty (Anterior) and Total Knee Arthroplasty. All Fundamental Surgery simulations are accredited by the Royal College of surgeons as an activity that demonstrates sufficient educational value to contribute to individual surgeons’ CPD, for which 6 CPD points can be claimed. It can be seen in action here.