Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, guests flew from all over the nation for labs and events at Axis Research & Technologies.  We would host up to 100 guests in our Southern California lab location on any given day! Because of our large square footage, multiple medical device companies and institutions could use our space simultaneously.

Our east coast lab location in Columbia, Maryland was built out with full professional audiovisual capabilities. I had the opportunity to work closely there for several months, learning how to broadcast virtual seminars, labs, and award ceremonies. As I returned to Southern California in Q1 of 2020, the timing could not have been better.

Those audiovisual skills became unbelievably valuable as we started offering broadcast audio visual capabilities in our Southern California location, just as the pandemic made in-person labs impossible. We built a full audio-visual system in Southern California to mimic what we have on the East Coast so clients could host hybrid labs. Broadcasting and related technology gives us the capacity do everything our clients need virtually. Between our two locations in Maryland and California, we’ve now held almost 100 virtual trainings!

Even though we are entering the ‘recovery’ phase of the pandemic (as of Q2 of 2021), our world is forever changed. We have taken the trends of videoconferencing and the needs for teams to interact and created solutions for the OR training environment. We help our clients virtualize and simulate an OR experience all around the world through the platform they already use, whether that’s Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, or something else. We seamlessly tie in all our medical equipment – from the endoscopic tower, C-arm, ultrasound, borescope, and feature all the images on a split screen in real time.

Medical device companies bring in Key Opinion Leaders (KOL’s) to our lab (in-person) and use our two-way audiovisual communications to broadcast it to their team. Sales representatives, doctors, and other key stakeholders anywhere in the world feel like they are in the lab with them.  The surgeon can show different angles to highlight whatever they’re training their personnel on. Our medical equipment and audiovisual tools work together to visualize in-depth human anatomy that can’t even be captured by the human eye. For example, our surgeons can use our endoscopic cameras to show their team not just heart valves, but the leaflets on the valve. Everybody involved in the lab has a high definition, immaculate view of what they’re there to practice and learn.

One of my favorite stories of the Axis Research and Technologies audiovisual equipment in action was from a recent training involving robotics. Our client brought in a surgeon and a robot to broadcast this process.  The whole company could watch the robotic-assisted-procedure, from anywhere in the nation. We successfully tied in their surgeon, intellectual property, and our medical equipment to stream this collaboration to their internal team.

Although expanded virtual labs and trainings grew out of an unfortunate necessity with the pandemic, there’s a real silver lining here. Air travel, hotels, and other costs must be factored in as medical device companies train and educate their teams. Virtual training eliminates all geographical boundaries and barriers. That means doctors, sales representatives and research and development staff can virtually visit places beyond their means in everyday life.  Even as in-person trainings continue building back up in 2021 and 2022, these new technologies are here to stay. The sky is the limit!

Written by Christian Loversky
National Director of Technology