Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Sensable Customers Showcase Touch-Enabled Surgical, Medical Simulation and Robotics Innovations at MMVR Conference

February 8, 2012 By AxoGen, Inc.

WILMINGTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sensables
customers will feature prominently at the Medicine
Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) Conference
in Newport Beach, California
beginning tomorrow, where they will showcase innovative haptically-enabled
surgical, medical simulation, rehabilitation and robotic applications developed
using Sensables Phantom® force feedback haptic devices. Studies have shown
that adding tactile feedback into image-guided surgical and simulation
solutions can enhance proficiency, accuracy and dexterity for better prepared
surgeons and better surgical outcomes. As a result, force feedback haptics
technology has increasingly gained adoption in immersive training and
simulation applications, and is now moving into diagnostics, patient-specific
surgical planning, stroke rehabilitation and in robotically-controlled,
minimally invasive procedures.

“Force-feedback haptics are rapidly gaining interest in
virtually every area of medicine – from learning basic surgical skills to
administering ultrasounds; from patient specific surgical planning to
haptically guiding surgical robots”

Sensable is the de facto leader in the force-feedback
haptics market, with a rich patent portfolio and over 10,000 systems installed
worldwide. Sensables Phantom haptic devices demonstrate the power of touch to
transform biomedical innovation across a wide variety of computing platforms,
use cases and delivery models. At
MMVR this week, Sensable and its customers will show how adding the sense
of touch is changing the way surgeons are trained in fundamental skills, learn
advanced subspecialty skills, perform minimally invasive surgery, and achieve
proficiency even in geographies where training facilities or access to cadavers
are lacking.

Sensable customer applications cited or on display at MMVR
include:

  • Virtual Basic Laparoscopic Skill Trainer (VBLaST), a
    touch-enabled virtual reality platform from Rensselaer
    Polytechnic Institute, that is designed to train and test future surgeons,
    and is the cornerstone of the universitys “Virtual
    OR” initiative
    . Funded by an NIH grant, VBLaST is a virtual version of the
    Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) training being developed by a joint
    committee of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgery
    (SAGES) and the American
    College of Surgeons
    (ACS). The VBLaST attaches actual laparoscopic tools to the ends of two Phantom
    Omni force feedback haptic devices, which clinicians use to practice
    transferring on-screen objects from hand to hand, helping them to learn the
    correct feeling, force, and motions required in actual surgery. The system
    provides a consistent, objective metric on surgical skills, and allows surgical
    residents to be tested at a local facility at their convenience, rather than at
    a few select cities and dates, where they must be observed and graded by
    qualified proctors. Presently in the early stages of validation trials at four
    Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals in Boston,
    VBLaST is intended to become the standard way for credentialing surgeons who
    perform laparoscopic procedures in the future.
  • NeuroTouch haptically-enabled brain surgery simulator,
    developed by the National
    Research Council (NRC) of Canada
    , is a platform that enables neurosurgeons
    to rehearse a delicate operation on an anatomically precise virtual brain.
    Surgeons must rely on more than visual input when operating on the tiny
    structures of the brain – they must learn the feeling of various tissue types
    as they navigate anatomies which vary tremendously across individuals and
    disease states. NeuroTouch presents a virtual 3D brain on a computer screen as
    users hold Sensables Phantom haptic device to feel the structures as they
    follow a simulated surgery. When a surgical instrument touches virtual fibrous
    tissue as in a tumor, the surgeon feels resistance, yet when soft tissue is
    touched, the instrument moves smoothly. NeuroTouch allows surgical residents
    unlimited practice opportunities, as well as presenting multiple surgical scenarios,
    to become familiar with neurosurgical procedures at zero risk to patients.
  • Virtual Temporal Bone Surgery Simulator, developed by the Ohio
    Supercomputer Center in partnership with Dr. Gregory Wiet, Associate
    Professor, Otolaryngology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, a
    teaching hospital of The Ohio State University. The simulator helps surgeons
    learn the feeling of difficult and delicate surgical techniques associated with
    ear surgery that requires drilling into a bone in the skull, called the
    temporal bone. OSCs simulator has been used in Nicaragua,
    a country where cadaveric materials are hard to access, to train local
    ear-nose-throat (ENT) surgeons, and will be part of a planned training
    laboratory in Central America. This highlights
    the importance of using advanced simulators in developing nations where
    physicians cannot acquire highly specialized clinical skills and rehearse
    unusual anatomical conditions as readily as their peers in developed nations.
  • Stroke Rehabilitation application, created by Brain
    Stimulation AB of Sweden using Sensables haptic devices and developed with SenseGraphics
    H3DAPI
    haptic application programming interface (API). The application provides an
    entertaining way for patients to improve fine motor skills and improve
    attention, and is presently being evaluated at a Swedish research institution.
    The application leverages Umeå Universitys research in the field of VR, and the Umeå University
    Hospitals research in
    neurology and rehabilitation.

In addition, Sensable will display the newest version of its
Phantom haptic devices, which allows easy connection and configuration through
the standardized network interface, and supports the use of customized
end-effectors, such as surgical drills or endoscopic tools. Sensable will also
showcase a new version of its OpenHaptics™ developer toolkit, which allows
developers to easily touch-enable their applications and integrate them into
more platforms.

“Force-feedback haptics are rapidly gaining interest in
virtually every area of medicine – from learning basic surgical skills to
administering ultrasounds; from patient specific surgical planning to
haptically guiding surgical robots,” said Joan Lockhart, vice president of
marketing for Sensable. “As more universities and hospitals build simulation
and training centers, VCs and healthcare organizations continue to fund
minimally invasive procedures and advanced diagnostics, the market for
touch-enabling technology will continue to accelerate. We salute the innovation
of our customers in applying a sense of touch to better train, and better serve
all patients.”

About Sensable

Founded in 1993, Sensable remains the leading developer of touch-enabled
solutions and technology that allow users to not only see and hear an on-screen
computer application, but to actually “feel” it. With 44 patents granted and
over 10,000 systems installed worldwide, Sensable helps people innovate with
human touch solutions. The company markets and sells a suite of 3D organic
design solutions that includes its flagship product, Freeform; and the Phantom®
and Omni™ lines of haptic devices, used in surgical simulation and planning,
stroke rehabilitation, medical training, and a range of research and robotic
applications. With an unparalleled commitment to partnering with customers,
Sensable brings a human touch to innovating and implementing customer-centric
solutions. Sensable products are available
through direct and reseller channels
worldwide. www.Sensable.com.

Related Articles Read More >

An illustration of Embolization Inc.'s Nitinol Enhanced Device (NED).
This nitinol vascular embolization device has another shape memory material up its sleeve
July 2025 edition: The Surgical Robotics issue, featuring Capstan Medical, J&J and Zimmer Biomet
A photo of Capstan Medical's mitral valve implant, which uses nitinol.
Capstan Medical’s R&D head discusses the heart valve and robotics startup’s tech, engineering challenges and solutions, advice for others in medtech and how to join his team
An illustration of a neurosurgeon using a robotic endoscope to remove a brain tumor.
MDO Nitinol Innovation Special Report
“mdo
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest medical device business news, application and technology trends.

DeviceTalks Weekly

See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe