How To Make Health Technology Fun and Accessible

Justin Barad is an orthopedic surgeon who has found a way to combine his two passions: gaming and healthcare.

The self-proclaimed tech nerd has always loved video games — he even worked at the video game company Activision. His plan was to go into the gaming industry, but when a family member experienced health issues he began to wonder whether he could use his technology background to help people and solve challenges in the medical field.

In pursuit of his passion, Justin received a bioengineering degree from University of California Berkeley and a medical degree from UCLA.

During his residency at UCLA, Justin saw issues with the way institutions train and assess healthcare professionals, especially surgeons.

The problem is threefold:

1. There’s too much to learn, especially considering the speed with which science and technology is expanding.

2. Modern surgery is complicated and newer procedures are harder to learn than more traditional ones.

3. There’s no real way to assess technical proficiency in healthcare.

“I’d be in multiple surgeries where people would ask me to Google what to do, find a video or technique guide, and it felt off to me,” Justin says.

Justin discovered virtual reality through the Oculus Rift DK1. He thought it was an “incredible solution” to the surgical training problem.

He and his business partner, Matt Newport, developed a prototype VR platform. They won an award and garnered interest from investors, and then in 2016 started Osso VR, which is now the leading virtual reality surgical training and assessment platform.

Osso VR’s technology — a VR headset and controllers — creates clinically accurate simulations with a cinematic level of visual fidelity. The platform allows surgeons to measure their growth with analytics both inside and outside of the platform.

In this episode of Medsider, Justin shares how he avoids being pulled in multiple directions with his technology, why it’s important to let potential customers get hands-on with your platform, and why tech can and should be fun — even in healthcare.