In a field as quickly changing as healthcare, ongoing training and education are essential. And just as it did with telehealth and physician collaboration, COVID has helped to accelerate work that was already going on in remote medical education. In today's episode of HIMSSCast, we will talk to two startup founders working on remote workforce training from different angles. First, host Jonah Comstock chats with Osso VR CEO and cofounder Dr. Justin Barad, then Healthcare IT News Senior Editor Kat Jercich talks to Jennifer Fried, CEO and cofounder of ExplORer Surgical.

This podcast is part of our Workforce Re-entry Series, brought to you by Zoom.

Talking points:

• Justin's background in video games and surgery
• Issues with healthcare workforce training: a lot to learn, complex procedures, no way to assess
• What’s the role of VR and what it can do
• How did we teach and practice surgery before VR?
• What it takes to become proficient in a surgical procedure
• How medical education broadly is changing
• VR fidelity — how it’s changing and why it is (and isn’t) important
• How ExplORer Surgical helps to make surgeries accessible remotely for teachers and students
• Disadvantages to physically observing surgeries
• Advantages to remote observation
• Dealing with connectivity issues in hospitals
• How to maintain a secure environment with remote training
• What’s coming up in technology and regulation

More about this episode:

At ortho meeting, VR companies announce industry-advancing partnerships

Surgeon training company Osso VR closes $27M Series B

Surgical training tool Osso VR adds assessment, more language support

Intraoperative support platform ExplORer Surgical collects $2.5M in new funding

Surgical support software maker ExplORer raises $5M