S9: #087: Can Virtual Reality be Considered a Medical Device?

How a former F-16 fighter pilot is flying high with new FDA and CE-registered medical applications using VR?

~ Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality – We’ve spoken to leaders about these technologies in our conversations with Dr. Brennan Spiegel, Dr. Ashya Vahabzadeh, Dr. Shafi Ahmed, Dr. Rafael Grossman and Dr. Justin Barad. Those guests, who all happened to be doctors leading in the field, spoke about their work across a wide variety of use cases, such as patient education, treating mental health condition, pain management, surgical training and actual live surgery.

In this episode, we discuss what makes VR such a powerful tool in health care, and tips on how to start a medical device company with no previous medical device or startup experience. We also dive into how the business was helped by getting the FDA involved early. Finally, we also discuss how VR bridges therapy from the hospital to the home, and some of the applications for motor and cognitive treatment, disease progression, response to therapy and much more.

Eran Orr is the CEO and Founder of XR Health, an Israeli company with offices in Boston, Massachusetts. XR Health creates an extended-reality platform that combines medical applications with advanced data analytics to provide a comprehensive solution for clinicians and patients. XRHealth is the first Certified Virtual Reality Medical Company to develop FDA/CE Registered Medical Applications. Their products focus on motor, cognitive, physical, psychological, postural ability and pain assessment and treatment.

Today's Topics:

How Eran got interested in developing VR solutions and his transition from the military to entrepreneurship

The problems that VR can be used to help solve in healthcare

Three key reasons that VR is effective as a healthcare technology

How VR can be classified as a medical device, and the costs and processes involved

The role of partnerships with VR leaders like Oculus

How getting involved with the FDA from the beginning helped prepare XR Health for success

The sales cycle and strategy for bringing customers on board

The meaning behind the company's new name, XR Health, and the future of VR in healthcare

Links and Resources Mentioned:

Eran Orr on Twitter 

Eran Orr on LinkedIn

XRHealth on Twitter 

XRHealth on LinkedIn

XRHealth on the Web

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