Actualité - Innovation

Institut Curie equips its surgeons and radiologists with AVATAR MEDICAL’s virtual reality medical image solution

11/23/2021

As part of its drive to remain at the forefront of patient care, Institut Curie Hospital group (Paris location) has decided to equip its surgeons and radiologists in its breast cancer and ENT department with the virtual reality medical image solution developed by its spin-off AVATAR MEDICAL. It is the first hospital in the world to buy this state-of-the-art medical image visualization solution.

Institut Curie Hospital group (Paris location) has decided to equip its surgeons and radiologists in its breast cancer and ENT department with AVATAR MEDICAL’s virtual reality medical image solution. It is the first hospital in the world to buy this state-of-the-art medical image visualization solution. AVATAR MEDICAL was founded in July 2020 by a team of French scientists and Franco-American entrepreneurs. The technology is based on four years of research in human-data interaction and machine learning conducted at Institut Pasteur and Institut Curie by Jean-Baptiste Masson, Mohamed El Beheiry, Fabien Reyal, and the late Maxime Dahan.

A member of NVIDIA Inception, a free program designed to empower cutting-edge startups, AVATAR MEDICAL’s solution generates in real-time 3D patient representations based on their medical images in an interactive virtual reality (VR) context and is particularly useful for visualizing and measuring tumors. A study from Institut Pasteur and Institut Curie recently published in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics proved that the solution allowed a faster and more accurate analysis of breast tumors and a better prediction of the surgical procedure.

Surgeons and radiologists at Institut Curie are going to use the solution to do research on the impact of 3D and VR visualization of medical images in surgery preparation and de-escalation of treatment. The solution will also help accelerate the training of residents and to ensure patient engagement.

At the end of the day, what’s important is to support cancer patients undergoing stressful surgeries and to help surgeons make the best decisions for them. I am delighted to partner with Institut Curie and their outstanding team of surgeons in order to accomplish this goal.

says Xavier Wartelle, CEO of AVATAR MEDICAL.

The quality of a procedure highly depends on preplanning and, in particular, on the perception and the knowledge the surgeon has of the disease before performing the surgery. AVATAR MEDICAL can play a central role in helping surgeons, whether experienced or novice, to better understand medical images and thus better perform their surgeries.

says Pr. Fabien Reyal, head of breast cancer surgery department at Institut Curie.

We are particularly proud to pursue our collaboration with AVATAR MEDICAL, one of our latest spin-offs, and thrilled to see this revolutionary technology, born in Institut Curie’s and Institut Pasteur’s research labs, and with the support of PSL, arrive at Institut Curie Hospital Surgical Department, for the benefit of patients.

says Cécile Campagne, head of Institut Curie’s Technology Transfer Office and deputy director of Carnot Curie Cancer.

The AVATAR MEDICAL software will be installed on computers equipped with NVIDIA RTX graphics cards based on the latest NVIDIA Ampere architecture and HP VR headsets.

In the long term, AVATAR MEDICAL aims to unlock the power of medical images and make them actionable to all stakeholders of the patient care: radiologists, surgeons, oncologists, residents, and patients. With AVATAR MEDICAL, medical images will become a collaboration tool to make the right decision, and a means of explanation for the patient.