Sira Medical – Improving Surgical Planning with State-of-the-Art Augmented Reality Solution

Healthcare has always been complex, but the 21st century has brought unprecedented changes. Soaring costs, demand for more personalized patient experiences, and an increased effort to deliver care to remote and underserved populations pose a litany of new challenges. The healthcare industry is undergoing tremendous change.  In particular, the pace of technological innovation, desire for more personalized patient experiences, increased medical expenses, and an increasing outreach to remote places poses a litany of new challenges. With the expanding use of connected devices, coupled with computer vision and artificial intelligence, the healthcare industry is being redefined by augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Augmented reality (AR) is the art of superimposing computer-generated content over a live view of the world. AR integrates digital information with the user’s environment in real time and is becoming more accessible and affordable for medical education and imaging, dentistry, and nurse training. AccuVein, VIPAR, ARnatomy, and VA-ST are among the available AR solutions for health care. Behavioral and psychological health problems are being addressed through AR technologies that create engaging and motivational environments; immersive technologies also are fostering empathy between patients and their caregivers and helping in understanding and treatment of diseases.

Sira Medical is one such company that is developing augmented reality software to help clinicians with pre-surgical planning by providing them with patient-specific high fidelity 3D holograms. Further applications exist in training and education and for manufacturers of implantable medical devices. It began with an idea conceived by founder Jesse Courtier, MD, a UCSF radiologist who noted a recurring challenge in surgical planning conference: that surgeons had difficulty translating radiology information into real world patients for surgical planning. His experience in 3D printing led to him to Augmented Reality and the enormous potential for this application in imaging. Sira Medical now is a team of physicians, business development executives and software developers with a groundbreaking idea that they hope will contribute towards a better tomorrow. The company is working to help doctors make surgery safer and more efficient- and this is just the beginning.

Providing Best-in-Class Augmented Reality Solution for Medical Needs

Surgical Planning: Sira Medical provides augmented reality software to help clinicians with pre-surgical planning. Its patient-specific, high fidelity 3D holograms enable surgeons to better understand complicated anatomy, collaboratively plan an operation, and virtually size medical implants all before stepping into the operating room. Its software delivers clearer and more relevant imaging-without hidden anatomy–avoiding billions of dollars a year in preventable adverse events and making time in surgery significantly more efficient. The company provides its images through software as a service enabling surgeons to remain in their pre-surgical planning workflow.

Training: The firm offers images for surgeon training, medical school curricula, and radiologic technician programs. Its library of images is ideal for education and training. With the surface rendered images relevant anatomy is clear and distinguishable. Obtaining 3D measurements including angles, distances, volume, and bone thickness is also easier. With its images, layers can be segmented separately and tailored to an end user’s needs.

Implant Design: The company’s surface rendered images are ideal for demonstrating fit of an implantable device with human anatomy, making rapid design prototyping of devices much easier and much more efficient. Its augmented reality software is a great tool to help surgeons visualize the fit of your implantable device. It provides a mobile solution that projects the patient specific holograms onto tablets and smart phones. The clarity with which they display anatomy is perfect for educating patients about their health issues.

The Visionary Leader at the Helm of Sira Medical

Rick Beberman is the Chief Executive Officer of Sira Medical. He has been involved in digital health for fifteen years as an entrepreneur, business development executive, and board member. Prior to healthcare, Rick was an investment banker specializing in mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, and partnerships. Rick has an MBA from New York University and a Masters in Accounting from the University of Southern California.

“With Sira Medical's Augmented Reality software app RadHA, we allow surgeons to view radiology images in a totally new way: projecting 3D radiology images onto a real-world background.”