How this medtech startup is using VR to change surgery in Japan

Photo credit: Holoeyes.

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This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with Disrupting Japan where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with Japanese entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

The medical industry is one of the world’s most highly regulated and hard to disrupt industries. But there are a number of innovative startups that have ways of improving things with simple, incremental changes that will make life better for everyone.

Holoeyes is one of these startups. I sat down with its CEO and CTO Naoji Taniguchi, and we talked about how their VR solution is winning over doctors in Japan and changing the way surgery is done.

The application builds up a VR model of organs from CT scans, lets doctors analyze and discuss these matters much more efficiently, and is used to train new doctors. What’s interesting is, unlike many VR companies, Holoeyes’ tech is already in use today.

nWhat is the application and how is it used? n

Holoeyes makes customized models for each patient’s organs. Our product also helps in communications between doctors and surgery team members and training senior and new doctors.

We partially use Diacom Viewer, a viewer of CT scan images, to build the VR models. Now, we are trying to use deep learning to automate, create, and make part of a model from CT scan images.

Before our product, doctors had to write in tickets for some of the surgery procedures. So, it was very complex. Using our product, doctors can do surgical procedures with game controllers and headset displays. It’s like a car racing game. And in using VR, we can see the movements at any angle.

We also archive the models on our crowd server, so we’ll be like a GitHub for surgery, where patients can have their data in public or private repositories.

nBut aren’t there very strong laws about sharing patient data?n

Yeah, there are. But the objective of our patients is to be cured, so data is not important for them. But for doctors, it’s crucial.

Nowadays, data is very personal. But we use polygons, where data doesn’t have personal information—name, age, the patient’s living address—attached.

nWhat platforms are you using for this?n

Well, for hardware, we are using HTC Vive and Microsoft Hololens. Both devices have good points and bad points. For HTC Vive, it’s a little bit expensive, but it can display a very detailed, high polygon model, and has good personal tracking.

The Microsoft Hololens is very cheap. We use crowd servers to store our data, and the device downloads that data.

nHow did you and your co-founder come together on this project? n

I have a friend who works as an editor and his publisher had 36 medical books for families. The old data was digital, so he told me he could use some data services using the script data.

During the process, I came across a lot of medical information. And I found an article of Sugimoto, my co-founder, where he was saying that modern medical technology needs 8K video imaging. At that time, I was doing a lot of projects, so I thought, “I’m interested.”And I thought we would get on well.

I found his Twitter account, messaged him, and then we talked in Tokyo.

Sugimoto is involved with day-to-day operations. He uses our product at hospitals and looks for doctors who are willing to use our product.

nWho’s using Holoeyes today? n

Our first customer was Sugimoto himself. The second one was Bokuto Hospital in Tokyo and the third was Sano Hospital. Our customer there is a dentist.

nWhat is the big problem that your product solves? n

The problem is that our bodies are 3D, but the doctors are using 2D monitors.

We don’t exactly have a quantitative system to know the success of our product yet, but doctors are saying that it’s very useful and that it reduces training costs and the time it takes to communicate.

Our goal is to make archival patient data. So, it helps poorer Asian countries to train their young doctors.

nAre doctors and hospitals willing to use your product or is there resistance?n

Sugimoto’s a doctor and he loves technology. He’s always searching for new technology to use in the medical field.

So, I think every industry’s the same. Some people are more inclined to this type of technology than others.

The important thing is that my co-founder is a doctor. He has connections to doctors and is very close with them.

Other Japanese startups in the medical field also have a co-founder who is a doctor. For example, there’s a startup called MediWeb and they have their own clinic.

I think more and more doctors are working with startups because their life is very static.

nWhen do you plan to start charging for Holoeyes?n

At the beginning of next year. This year is for marketing, development, and research with hospitals. I’m still considering the pricing for the product, though.

nIf you could change anything about Japan, what would it be?n

I want to make businessmen think more positively. When I show a demo for middle-aged businessmen, they always talk about the negative aspects. I want to hear about good solutions from them because I already know about negative things, right?

Read more from this series here.