Surgeons are physicians. Historically, they are also artisans. For centuries, surgeons designed their own tools and work instruments to best meet their needs during operations and procedures. Key opinion leaders, or KOLs, are exceptional surgeons whose know-how and influence are recognized by their peers. They are the first to recognize the importance of good instruments and the value of technique in their profession. Therefore, working with a KOL is crucial for any medical device company.
In this article, you will discover an innovative way to involve them put forward their technique and know-how.
KOLs: key opinion leaders recognized by their peers
From KOL to medical device: a care continuum
Surgeons can’t do anything without their instruments, without a reliable medical device in the service of their art. Like any artisan, these professionals recognize the vital importance of the tool: its excellence, its facilitative or even disruptive aspect in their profession. Therefore, they are spontaneously open to collaboration with a medical device company.
However, they must find this device and its application to be truly innovative. This applies even more to KOLs, who are, naturally, highly sought after. Therefore, added value of the medical device also rests in how it showcases the specialist’s know-how.
The desire to participate in surgical advancement
Participating in the development or transmission of a new medical device is one way for KOLs to become part of a long line of trail blazers, a scientific and medical vanguard that moves the whole profession forward.
This aspect of co-development, based on scientific interest and curiosity, is also encouraged by legislation, which has become more restrictive in this field.
Surgeons’ obligation to pursue training
The desire to transmit knowledge, common to many KOLs, is part of a general evolution of the profession toward a continuing education obligation, with evaluations and the need to pursue education and stay informed.
Thus, the benchmark of good practices is not only scientific curiosity, but adherence to the standards of the surgical profession.
Surgical tips and tricks: well-kept secrets
Tips and tricks are the little details that really make a difference during a surgery. The fruit of years or even decades of experience, they are an irreplaceable “plus” and the true signature of a KOL. Why position the spreader in such a way? why orient the instrument at such an angle? These are the secrets of golden fingers, hard to describe and write about, and yet so important once in the operating room.
So, how are these precious tips and tricks passed down? That is where the collaboration between the KOL and the medical device company really begins to make sense.
Innovation in the service of transmission: the solution Renivax offers to KOLs
In the skin of a KOL
Revinax has focused on the matter of how to transmit good surgical technique. Our co-founder, Maxime Ros, is a neurosurgeon himself, so he knows the problems of the profession well. The disruptive principle of our solution: to put the learner in the skin of the KOL who is using all of his or her art in an actual surgical procedure.
Memorization and acquisition are greatly facilitated by the activation of mirror neurons. Thus, Revinax offers medical device companies and KOLs the chance to co-create an immersive tutorial in augmented reality, using a battery of cameras filming the operating room, as well as a camera focused on the KOL.
The tutorial is supplemented by additional information sequenced in chapters. When immersed through the use of a VR headset or cardboard (a lightweight video headset placed a smartphone which serves as screen), learners are face-to-face with the correct surgical gestures, as if they were performing them themselves.
Tips and tricks, live!
This association between the KOL and the medical device is a unique opportunity for KOLs to transmit their art directly and for learners to recreate the movement themselves, over and over again.
These secrets and tricks of the trade are reproduced in the correct environment, from the correct point of view, and not out of context. This assures KOLs that their art is not distorted and that there is no loss of technical accuracy.
Face time with the KOL is optimized
Thanks to the “knowledge library,” an online platform with secure access, the tutorials can be watched over and over, anytime and anywhere.
This lets users compare themselves with the professionalism and expertise of the KOL performing the surgery as often as they want. This is both practical and reassuring.
An easy-to-learn process that makes things go more smoothly for the KOL
The term virtual reality, or VR, can turn some people off, leading them to think that maybe these immersive tutorials are only for “geeks.” The good news is that these tutorials are designed to be very easy to access.
Even if you’re “old school” or indifferent to technology, you will be surprised by the ease and simplicity of the experience. Moreover, the fact that it is video-based makes the experience much more familiar, as opposed to the synthetic images used in video games.
