Philips Quality Assurance VR Training

4 min read November 4, 2023

The Solution to Save Millions of Lives Yearly from Cardiovascular Disease

In atherosclerosis, fatty deposits build up on the arterial walls, forming plaque. This process narrows the blood vessels and reduces blood flow. With a drug-coated angioplasty balloon, Stellarex 035, a global leader in health technology, Philips created the possibility of cleaning the vessel, ensuring better blood flow and lessening the complications of the disease.

When a blockage in an artery is determined, a drug-coated balloon is inserted until it reaches the desired treatment area. It is then inflated so that it pushes outwards up against the inside walls of the artery. This pressing against the arterial walls allows the drug-coating to attach to the arterial walls and the plaque, causing the blockage. This is how the curing drug is delivered to the vessel, where it starts doing its job to ensure its rescue.

Global Challange of the Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) affect the heart and blood vessels and are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives annually. According to the World Health Organization, over four out of five CVD deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes; one-third of these deaths affect people under 70.

In the meantime, atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the arteries and is the underlying cause of a wide range of issues (for example, Peripheral Arterial Disease – PAD) and leads to about 50% of all deaths in Westernised society, says the National Center of Biotechnology Information (USA).

Ensuring the Procedure Excellence Using VR

The sophisticated quality control technique of inserting the drug-coated balloon is essential for further effective procedures. Philips’ challenge was educating personnel on executing the quality control procedures, which implies no room for mistakes as patients’ lives depend on it. Quality supervision involves work with the machinery and equipment and numerous visual and manual checks, which are technically challenging to replicate and digitalize in virtual reality.

Lucid Reality Labs designed and developed the training solution for Philips quality control specialists to address this complicated challenge. The simulation recreated the detailed laboratory environment with the highest level of authenticity, from the tools, machines, and stations to the real-life feeling of immersion in the laboratory’s sounds, lights, and processes.

The pictures and real-life videos from the laboratory and microscopes were used as prototypes. Nevertheless, manufacturing data for more precision and accuracy allowed us to create hyperrealistic models and an immersive environment that ultimately reflects the actual Philips laboratory.

High-fidelity 3D graphics and the digital twin technology of the procedure tools and equipment provide the possibility for the most accurate procedure completion. For example, to insert the coated balloon, the trainee must overcome the real-life challenge of the catheter banding and consider the gravity and the liquid and semiliquid materials’ physical qualities, which are realistically recreated in the immersive experience.

Training mode, in particular, covers different types of mistakes: manipulations (interactions), decision-making (defining if the device is working well or defective), and pipeline (missed steps). This solution is even more complicated as it comprises a system of scenarios and diverse variations of their categories. For example, different goals can be used in tutorial or examination modes.

The Lucid Reality Labs team designed the scenario testing system from scratch, incorporating different scenarios and modes that include many parameters and indicators. Starting from the environment and going to the super precise detailed micro level, the solution managed to provide high proficiency and performance of all the training scenarios, ensuring the highest excellence learning outcome.

Simulation reflects the actual behavior of the objects as every type of material, such as metal, rubber, or polymer, has its physics. To achieve this similarity, the client’s expertise was also involved.

From the technical part, the quality control solution had to be adjusted and perform equally excellently using diverse platforms, desktop, and mobile versions, while interactions in the VR world should feel as accurate as possible to develop and examine skills that will be implemented in real life.