AVATAR MEDICAL, a medtech startup spun off from the Institut Pasteur and Institut Curie in Paris, France in 2020, has obtained FDA clearance for a virtual reality planning solution that creates VR representations of patients.

The solution uses proprietary technology to generate patient avatars from CT and MR images, produced with scanners from all major manufacturers, for preoperative planning and guidance during surgical procedures.

Users upload their DICOM images in one-click to create the virtual models in real time that clinicians can interact with at the point of care. VR models can be created without an internet connection or data pretreatment.
The platform has been applied in cardiovascular, surgical oncology, breast surgery, head and neck, orthopedic surgery, and neonatal imaging care, as well as for education, research, and patient engagement, according to AVATAR MEDICAL.

“With the ability to plan based on preoperative imaging and then evaluate as well as confirm based on intraoperative imaging, I now have an additional level of capability and confidence in my advanced percutaneous and endovascular interventions,” said Dr. Venkatesh Krishnasamy, an interventional radiologist and associate professor of radiology at Columbia University, in a statement.

Because there is no segmentation, surgeons can see lossless representations of organs, in which original data is reconstructed from compressed data with no loss of information. They also can apply advanced dynamic filters to highlight specific anatomical structures, as well as textures, including vessels, tumors, and bones.

The technology was developed over four years at the Institut Pasteur and Institut Curie.

The company, which was founded by American and French scientists, has a subsidiary in Mountain View, California.

It expects to obtain European certification for its technology next year, according to CEO Xavier Wartelle.

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