Aussie medtech startup Vantari brings the power of virtual reality (VR) to healthcare – Anthill online

Vantari VR is leading the way for the future of healthcare inAustralia by bringing to life the human body through Virtual Reality. UsingAustralian made technology to provide transformative applications, Vantari isimplementing VR to in two distinct areas to improve patient outcomes, namelySurgical Planning and Medical Training.

Vantari empowers doctors and patients to better visualiseand read medical imaging such as CT and MRI scans. The companys cutting-edgerendering technology takes the current visualisation of these images intoVirtual Reality by creating an immersive and intuitive environment.

Signalling the end of two-dimensional (2D) black and whitemedical scans, Vantaris technology modernises imaging by rendering patientscans in true 3D, offering new and intuitive ways for the surgeon to visualise,interpret and understand medical images. Vantaris vision is to be the goldstandard for medical visualisation, leading to better decisions when it comesto planning patients life changing operations.

Medical training is crying out for Vantari, with the oldphilosophy of see one, do one, teach one as well as expensive and outdatedequipment such as mannequins providing suboptimal procedural education.

Vantari prepares students and doctors for patient carethrough procedural modules and scenarios in VR which replicate real lifeevents, allowing a safe way to practice while a powerful data portal in thebackground collects performance for personal and professional review. Vantariis the flight simulator for doctors which can be done anywhere and at any time.

Founded in late 2017, Vantari was created by two doctors DrVijay Paul and Dr Nishanth Krishnananthan who worked for over 8 years in theAustralian health system. They met on their first day of internship and bondedduring several night shifts during the first years of medical work, and soondeveloped a keen interest to better understand and improve their profession.

As a medical doctor with experience in emergency medicine(Dr Vijay Paul) and in surgery (Dr Nishanth Krishnananthan), the duo spenttheir careers working in medical centres and hospitals across Australia. Fromthis, they discovered firsthand the pain points and realised that a commonissue amongst all of them was understanding medical imaging, the only visualrepresentation patients had of their condition. In 2017, they decided to dosomething about it.

Working in the industry made us aware of the challengesthat medical professionals and their patients face on a daily basis. A clearissue was reading and understanding medical images. This can be tricky even forthe most experienced of professionals, who normally go through years oftraining just to learn how to read a standard medical scan, reflects Dr VijayPaul, Vantari VRs Co-CEO.

So, you can only imagine how hard it is for them tomentally reconstruct hundreds of slices prior to operating on patients. At thetime, the way we read medical images hadnt changed in 30 years, so it pushedus to start thinking of a better way to do it. We knew that there was asolution in technology so decided to explore it.

Fast forward to the middle of 2017 and the duo brought onDaniel Paull, an expert in VR, AI, AR and computer vision, to bring to lifetheir vision and add much needed technical flair as a CTO for the company.

With a prototype ready and a Cicada program with NSW Healthunder their belt, Vantari received a huge milestone in 2018 when it achievedpre-seed funding when selected as 1 of 10 companies to partake in leadinghealth insurer HCFs Catalyst program. Catapulted by the success of theprogram, Vantari achieved the both a local NSW grant as well as most recentlyreceiving almost AU$560,000 in the latest round of the federal governmentsEntrepreneurs Programme.

However, as most companies whove spent time in startupworld will attest, it hasnt always been smooth sailing. In late 2018 whenVantari VR were working with an investor to secure the federal governmentgrant, the company in avertedly ran into some trouble.

We were in a great position where we had secured fundingfrom an investor to submit as a matched contribution to the grant, but at thefinal hour we found out that the investor didnt actually have the funds. Thismeant we had to scramble to find another investor or risk losing the grant. Bysome miracle we found another investor and secured the grant in the end. As youcan imagine however, it was an incredibly stressful time we learnt the hardway of what can go wrong when it comes to raising funds, said Dr NishanthKrishnananthan, Vantari VRs Co-CEO.

The future for Vantari VR is in further securing keypartnerships that will widen their digital footprint in the health space. Atpresent, the company is working with Westmead Hospital and Royal Prince AlfredHospital (RPAH), embedding their technology in procedural training and cardiac surgicalplanning respectively.

At Westmead, junior doctors and trainees can learn from theimmersive simulations hosted by Vantari VRs platform, while at RPAH theirtechnology is being used to render cardiac CT and MRI scans into VR to assistcomplex heart surgery. Doctors are also trialling the technology to showpatients their scans using VR headsets, mimicking what the future might looklike for all doctor consultations.

Its clear that the future of healthcare is in technologyand as experts search for a better way, Vantari are showcasing a new digitalreality for all. Patients will also benefit from Vantari, because its abilityto help clinicians decipher often complex medical diagnostic imagery assiststhem in making empowered decisions about their health, in conjunction withtheir doctor.

Redefining whats possible, Vantari predict that this typeof technology will soon become the new norm for healthcare professionals andpatients alike. As the company continues to explore the endless possibilitiesat the intersection of medical imaging and virtual reality, the sky is thelimit in the virtual world of Vantari VR.

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Aussie medtech startup Vantari brings the power of virtual reality (VR) to healthcare - Anthill online