Virtual Reality Simulator for Fetoscopic Spina Bifida for Repair Surgery – this was the title of Przemysław Korzeniowski presentation at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), one of the largest and most impacting robotics research conferences. 
 
Spina Bifida is a birth defect developed during the early stage of pregnancy in which there is an incomplete closing of the spine around the spinal cord. In Sano, we developed a prototype VR simulator for core manual skills training for fetoscopic Spina Bifida repair surgery. 

The initial validation study with surgeons rated the simulator as realistic, recognizing its usefulness as a training tool for fetoscopic procedures and learning fundamental laparoscopic skills. 

Besides surgical training, our motivation is to develop high-fidelity simulation, which can be used in the training of autonomous surgical robots. 

The paper is available: [2208.00169v1] Virtual Reality Simulator for Fetoscopic Spina Bifida Repair Surgery (arxiv.org)