Numerous medical training institutions find that integrating laparoscopic simulation into their curriculum both improves training outcomes and ultimately supports better patient care. Benefit from VirtaMed’s decades of experience and expertise in laparoscopy training and education. Your residents will enter the OR with confidence!
Prof. Dieter Hahnloser, Head Physician Visceral Surgery, CHUV Lausanne, Switzerland
Patient Position
Start training with your patient in the right position relative to the operative team. Organs move individually and in real time.
Active Trocars™
Advanced tissue feedback gives you the sense of touching, lifting and applying tension to simulated organs and tissues.
Train Together
Surgeons learn to master their instruments alongside an assistant with a camera, optimally preparing them for the operating room.
LaparoS™ Essential Skills
The perfect setup to practice essential laparoscopic skills while benefiting from mixed reality training. Objective feedback metrics provide proficiency-based feedback to help residents accelerate their learning curve.
Using a simulated 0° and 30° optic, residents can become proficient in camera navigation, eye-hand coordination, and development of ambidextrous psychomotor skills. All instruments have authentic ring handles and virtual instrument tips such as clip applicators, scissors, and atraumatic graspers.
LaparoS™ General Surgery
Start by positioning your patient, reverse Trendelenburg or supine, and place Active Trocars™ for your scope and instruments. Stand side-by-side with a colleague for team training, or train in stand-alone mode.
Inserting the laparoscope allows you to examine the entire insufflated peritoneal cavity as you introduce more trocars and instruments. Use a combination of blunt dissection and electrosurgical instruments, and feel tissue feedback individual to each organ.
Condensed training cases focus on specific skills and adverse events, allowing residents to focus on repeating and mastering each skill individually. Improve ambidextrous and non-dominant hand skills using rare Situs inversus totalis patient cases.
LaparoS™ Gynecological Laparoscopy
Start by moving your patient into the Trendelenburg position and place Active Trocars™ for your scope and instruments. Stand side-by-side with a colleague for team training, or train in stand-alone mode.
Residents progress through training cases for diagnostic laparoscopy, anatomy identification, clipping and cutting, and more training cases derived from highly realistic scenarios including Hysterectomy, Tubal Ligation, Cystectomy, Salpingectomy, and management of Ectopic Pregnancies.
The platform is also compatible with the VirtaMed GynoS™ Hysteroscopy training modules to provide comprehensive training in line with ACGME, ABOG and ACOG milestones.
VirtaMed laparoscopic platform
VirtaMed LaparoS™ includes an anatomically correct abdomen model that can be used for (reverse) Trendelenburg positioning as appropriate to the training case. Free choice of portals enables trainees to learn instrument handling with different trocar placement. Realistic laparoscopic instruments have been adapted for simulation and combine full freedom of movement with authentic haptic interactions. The simulator is optimized for ergonomic training with an adjustable operative height and a movable multi-touch screen.
VirtaMed LaparoS™ is a multidisciplinary platform, allowing you to rapidly switch between laparoscopy and further VirtaMed modules and anatomies: GynoS™, UroS™ and ArthroS™.
Support
We offer several different levels of service and support packages tailored specifically to the needs of hospitals and training centers. These can provide you with completed coverage (and peace of mind) when it comes to protecting your investment and getting the most out of your simulator. More about VirtaMed customer service and support
VirtaMed Connect™
Keep your focus on education with remote access; conveniently assign courses and manage curricula, and motivate students with online leader boards, all from the convenience of your office.
Connect lets you track student and cohort progress, helping you easily coach students on key areas for improvement and capture and compare student results over time.
Use Connect to scale simulation to your needs. Because it is cloud-based, Connect can help you easily manage multi-simulator or multi-site training programs.
Go to the Connect FAQs webpage
Download the VirtaMed Connect Factsheet
Training & Education
Our T&E team is here to help you get the most out of your simulator. In addition to introductory sessions, the T&E team offers in-depth training in a variety of areas and in multiple languages (English, German, French, Italian and Chinese). The T&E team can organize trainings that are as diverse as our customers, catering to groups of all sizes and interests. For example, they have helped customers develop courses for trainees preparing for the European board exam or the Swiss Orthopedic exam as well as courses for experienced professionals looking to train on the less-common joints such as the ankle. More about the VirtaMed Training & Education services
Evaluation of a virtual-reality-based simulator using passive haptic feedback for knee arthroscopy
Sandro F. Fucentese, Stefan Rahm, Karl Wieser, Jonas Spillmann, Matthias Harders, Peter P. Koch
Simulator training in orthopaedics is still in its infancy. The aim of this study is to determine face and construct validity of a new virtual reality simulator (VirtaMed ArthroS™) for diagnostic and therapeutic knee arthroscopy by analysis of simulator metrics of participants with varying arthroscopy experience.Virtual reality simulator for training urologists on transurethral prostatectomy
ZHU He, ZHANG Yi, LIU Jin-shun, WANG Gang, YU Cheng-fan and NA Yan-qun
As a new method of training on transurethral prostatectomy skills, training of TURP using a virtual simulator can help urologists improve their surgical skills and safety. Therefore, the application of the TURPSim™ system in education and training of urologic surgery is warranted.Reference Center Würzburg, Germany
As the very first hospital in Germany, König-Ludwig-Haus uses the arthroscopy simulator VirtaMed ArthroS™ for the education of resident physicians. The simulator is an inherent part of the curriculum and receives positive feedback from young surgeons. Dr. Stephan Reppenhagen also perceives a positive effect on the learning curve of young physicians, way before their first guided procedure in the operating room.
Reference Center University of Utah, USA
The University of Utah wanted to enhance surgical education in the orthopedic department. The goal is simply to use the latest educational means available for the training of young surgeons, i.e. virtual reality simulators. After comparing the different simulators currently on the market and their training abilities, the decision was clear. Watch the video below and see why Dr. Burks of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery prefers the VirtaMed ArthroS™ arthroscopy simulator over other training tools.
Reference Center HELIOS hospital group, Germany
The HELIOS Hospital Group consists of 110 acute and rehabilitation facilities with about 34.000 beds and more than 69.000 employees. The departments for urology and gynecology train a large group of residents each year until they complete their education as medical specialists. In 2011, HELIOS included VirtaMed's virtual reality simulators into their standard curriculum for residents in training. E.g. in each urology department, a simulator is placed at the disposal of each clinic for six weeks each year. During this time, the head physician conducts a training program. In his or her first year, every surgeon who wants to conduct transurethral resection has to perform 50 documented procedures on the simulators.
Face validity, construct validity and training benefits of a virtual reality TURP simulator
Elizabeth Bright*, Samuel Vine, Mark R. Wilson, Rich S.W. Masters, John S. McGrath
Virtual reality (VR) surgical simulators provide repetitive practice and performance feedback without requiring supervision in a safe environment. Simulators have the potential to shorten the learning curve for complex surgical procedures, create skills which transfer to the operating room and therefore decrease the incidence of future complications. Experts resected a significantly greater percentage of prostate per minute [...] and had significantly less active diathermy time without tissue contact [...] than novices.Visual Control Strategies of Surgeons: A Novel Method of Establishing the Construct Validity of a Transurethral Resection of the Prostate Surgical Simulator
Elizabeth Bright, Samuel J. Vine, Thomas Dutton, Mark R. Wilson, John S. McGrath
Significant differences between experts and novices in both performance and visual control strategy were observed. The study of visual control strategies may be a useful adjunct, alongside measurements of motor performance, providing a novel method of assessing the construct validity of surgical simulators.Learning effects using a TURP simulator: Assessing changes in visual control and performance
Samuel Vine, Thomas Dutton, Mark Wilson, Elizabeth Bright, John McGrath
Surgical simulators afford trainees the chance to practice skills in a safe environment and without the need for supervision. Although they have been proposed to shorten the learning curve for complex surgical skills, there is concern that they do not prepare trainees for the demanding conditions of the operating room. Research in skill learning (including surgical skills) has shown that experts and novices can be distinguished by differences in their visual control strategies, with experts using fewer fixations of a longer duration. The aim of this study was to assess the learning benefits of a TURP simulator by examining, not only changes in novice performance, but also changes in their visual control.Preliminary Experience with Virtual Reality Simulation vs. Animal Model for Hysteroscopic Myomectomy Training
L.R. Glazerman, S.R. Hart, M. Bajka, D. Fink, R.R. Bassaly
The HystSim™ Virtual Reality hysteroscopic trainer was felt to be at least equal to the ‘‘gold standard’’ pig bladder model for training in hysteroscopic myomectomy with the additional advantages of reproducibility and measurement of results. Further studies comparing modalities and relating results to operating room performance are warranted.Establishing Construct Validity of a Virtual-Reality Training Simulator for hysteroscopy via a Multimetric Scoring System
PD Dr. med. Michael Bajka, Dr. Stefan Tuchschmid, Daniel Fink, Prof. Dr. Gabor Szekely, PD Dr. Matthias Harders
The aims of this study are to determine construct validity for the HystSim™ virtual reality (VR) training simulator for hysteroscopy via a new multimetric scoring system (MMSS) and to explore learning curves for both novices and experienced surgeons.Evaluation of a New Virtual-Reality Training Simulator for Hysteroscopy
PD Dr. med. Michael Bajka, Dr. Stefan Tuchschmid, Daniel Fink, Prof. Dr. Gabor Szekely, PD Dr. Matthias Harders
Face validity has been established for a new hysteroscopic surgery simulator. Potential trainees and trainers assess it to be a realistic and useful tool for the training of hysteroscopy. Further systematic validation studies are needed to clarify how this system can be optimally integrated into the gynecological curriculum.Nancy Regional University Hospital, France
"VirtaMed’s laparoscopic simulator delivers unparalleled levels of realism and will play an important role in preparing residents for real OR scenarios, including team training and management of complications. We compared many high-fidelity simulators and are confident that the LaparoS™ is the simulator with the highest potential." - Prof. Ahmet Ayav, Head of the Digestive Surgery Department
Broward Health
Dr. Ivan Puente, MD, FACS Program Director said, "From the moment you walk up to the simulator you can set it up just like we do in the OR. We are able to mimic exactly what we do on the real patient. I like that we can add complications such a bleeding and bile leakage to better prepare residents for the OR. Clearly having the simulation before the operation enhances skills and improves patient safety."
VirtaMed @ SCGP Congress 2021
September 22, 2021 - September 24, 2021
Try the VirtaMed simulators at the SCGP Congress 2021 in Paris, France.
VirtaMed @ ESGE 2021
October 03, 2021 - October 05, 2021
Visit the VirtaMed booth for the European premiere of the innovative LaparoS™ laparoscopic training simulator for gynecological laparoscopy at the ESGE 30th Annual Congress 2021 in Rome, Italy.
VirtaMed @ AAGL 2021: 50th Global Congress on MIGS
November 14, 2021 - November 17, 2021
Visit the VirtaMed booth at the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL) 2021: 50th Global Congress on MIGS in Austin, Texas, the United States.
VirtaMed @ World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery 2021
November 24, 2021 - November 27, 2021
Visit the VirtaMed booth at the 17th IFSES World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery in conjunction with the 29th International Congress of the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) and incorporating the 16th Meeting of the section of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Technological Innovation of the Spanish Association of Surgery in Barcelona, Spain.