CorNeat Vision, a clinical-stage, biomimetic implant and technology company, and LiveU, a company offering high-quality live video streaming and remote production solutions, announced today that they have partnered and successfully implemented an on-demand Remote Surgeon Virtual Presence (RSVP) solution.
The companies cooperated with Alcon to leverage its NGENUITY® 3D Visualization System to successfully perform remote supervised hands-on training of Canadian cornea experts located at the Kensington Eye Institute in Toronto, without leaving Israel. The solution, which was engineered to address COVID-19 travel restrictions, enabled initiation of the Canadian clinical site toward first implantations of the CorNeat KPro artificial cornea.
“With sub second latency, and a crisp, clear, hi-resolution, stereoscopic video signal projected to my Goovis 3D head-mounted display, it felt as if I beamed onto the objective lens of the remote ophthalmic microscope in Canada,” said Dr. Gilad Litvin, CorNeat Vision Founder, and Chief Medical Officer. “The RSVP solution is a game-changer in terms of our ability to expand our clinical trial to additional sites during the pandemic. Moreover, it will facilitate a smooth and efficient CorNeat KPro launch, as it will allow us to train physicians all over the world without leaving our office, helping us ramp up sales,” he added.
“It was as if Gilad was right here with me,” noted Prof. David Rootman, a world-renowned cornea expert and the Primary Investigator leading the Canadian artificial cornea clinical trial at the Toronto Western Hospital, part of the University Health Network. “Our ability to perform this training successfully is key in enabling us to initiate our trial without reliance on international travel,” he added.
“We are extremely excited to take part and assist in advancing CorNeat Vision’s clinical trial,” noted Ronen Artman, VP Marketing of LiveU. “LiveU’s reliable portable transmission solution enabled us to remotely connect to the microscope’s 3D video output without any technical assistance. While this unit alone enables streaming video for trainees, for example, the implementation of our bonded video decoder on the trainer side in Israel provided the low latency needed for the surgeons to interact in real-time while sharing a high-resolution 3D image.”
“The ability to stream high-resolution 3D video, critical in ophthalmic surgeries, directly from the operating room in real-time opens up a wide range of applications and use cases for us,” said Franck Leveiller, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Research and Development at Alcon, a global leader in the ophthalmology space and the provider of the NGENUITY 3D Visualization System.”
He added, “This innovative solution provides an additional added value to our customers, who can now leverage their investment to enable remote surgeon training, and remote expert supervision during live procedures. The RSVP solution is a true enabler during the pandemic. I’d like to thank our Canadian team and the surgical team at Lapidot Group, our Israeli distributor, for their support in making this a success.”
About the Remote Surgeon Virtual Presence (RSVP) solution: The RSVP solution is an on-demand video streaming solution that provides up to 4K video resolution in sub-second latency. The solution is comprised of a portable field unit and a decoder that bonds up to 16 cellular connections, multiple Wi-Fi networks, and a local area network to create a single managed high bandwidth connection that is optimized for video streaming. Coupled with Alcon NGENUITY 3D video output and a Goovis headset, this solution enables experts to “hop” into the operating room and provide their assistance and advice regardless of their geographical location.