Singular Health has broken into the medical “metaverse” with its virtual reality 3D medical visualisation tools that allow practitioners and patients to consult and collaborate via virtual reality headsets anywhere in the world. The company has aligned its virtual surgical planning software with Facebook’s metaverse hardware and software that creates a real-time 3D virtual reality environment for visualising and designing patient implants and visualising things like tumours.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently announced the advent of the “Metaverse” where Facebook buddies will be able to don a headset and interact with the avatar of friends across the planet in real time virtual reality.
Singular however has been quietly working on a similar concept in the medical world for sometime and has even upgraded its software to make use of Facebook’s own wireless virtual reality headset and supporting infrastructure known as Oculus Quest 2.
Oculus has also been part of the Meta stable, the parent company of Facebook, since 2014 when it was purchased for US$2 billion and earlier this year the name was dropped by the firm as part of the wider Metaverse Facebook re-brand.
2D imagery from CT, MRI and PET scans have historically been complex images to analyse by medical practitioners as they only allow a very limited scope of two dimensional visualisation. Singular’s 3D imagery technology allows the 2D images to be lifted from the page and converted into 3D where a practitioner can get a 360 degree view of a problem area such as a cancerous tumour which can greatly enhance planning for surgery.
Earlier this year Singular added to its armoury of 3D software after it purchased partially completed software designed to use 3D to create facial and other body part implants. Implants are often required in facial reconstruction surgery in particular and Singular’s newly acquired software can perfectly model up an implant based on a 2D scan that has been converted to 3D via its existing software known as 3Dicom.
This week Singular said it has managed to fully integrate its surgical implant software with 3Dicom and the two are now working in lockstep. It has also now integrated real time voice and text interaction via its VR headset as part of its surgical software as a service package.
This effectively means that multiple specialists could all consult together in the same virtual room, talking and interacting with each other whilst viewing a 3D version of a patient’s problem area. They can also design the required surgical implant moulds together in that virtual reality space.
In addition to its core virtual reality software, Singular Health has also been progressing its 3Dicom viewer tools to include the recently released 3Dicom Lite web version. 3Dicom Lite is an online service that can be deployed on local servers or delivered as a full software as a service to allow patients and practitioners to view 3D visualisations of CT, MRI and PET scans online together.
Singular Health welcomes the attention to the metaverse by the recent announcements made by Meta Platforms Inc. as it further validates both the technical and commercial vision on which the Company was built. The Company’s founder recognised the importance of collaboration in the virtual space in 2017 when he filed the Company’s original patent, and the recent release of the Meta’s Oculus Quest 2 VR headset has further allowed Singular Health to realise his vision.
In addition to improved surgical planning, the development of VSP and 3Dicom Lite (Web Version) represents a key strategic step into providing medical decision support tools in telemedicine and give practitioners and their patients information that is secure, clear, and easy to understand.
With a ball-park figure of 2 to 3 billion sets of eyeballs glued to Meta, nee-Facebook, 2021 will close with what appears to be an exciting time for the $30 million market capped Singular Health as it looks to advance its innovative technology and cement its place in the lucrative medical imaging market – and the Metaverse.
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