Startup scores FDA clearance for virtual reality tool that creates patient avatars via CT, MR images
A startup company has earned U.S. FDA clearance for a virtual reality tool that can create patient avatars using CT and MR images.
Avatar Medical said its solution can serve as an aid in pre-operative planning or for use during procedures. The 510(k) clearance follows four years of research in human interaction, with more than 100 physicians using the technology across 20 different institutions.
“With the ability to plan based on preoperative imaging and then evaluate as well as confirm based on intraoperative imaging, I now have an additional level of capability and confidence in my advanced percutaneous and endovascular interventions,” interventional radiologist Venkatesh Krishnasamy MD, with Columbia University in New York, said in a June 6 announcement.
Avatar Medical was first launched in Paris, France, in 2020 and has since opened an American subsidiary in Mountain View, California. The company has raised more than $3.9 million across three funding rounds, according to Crunchbase, including $2.7 million (USD) from the European Innovation Council.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.