The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has scheduled for March 5 a public workshop discussing the current techniques, needs, and gaps in evaluating the use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (AR) devices for medical applications.
The goal of the workshop is to advance the evaluation for medical use of extended reality (XR) devices -- such as AR and VR -- and identify barriers to their innovation and implementation, the FDA said in a recent statement. The agency's overarching vision for the meeting is to accelerate the development of safe and effective medical extended reality devices, ultimately to benefit patients.
A preliminary agenda for the workshop is set to include talks by experts in the field, including radiologist Dr. Dimitri Amiras of Imperial College Healthcare in the U.K.; computer scientist Nassir Navab, PhD, from Johns Hopkins University; and Dr. Brennan Spiegel from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Major tech companies such as Microsoft, Sony, LG Electronics, and Philips Healthcare will also deliver presentations.
The meeting is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis and will take place at the FDA headquarters in Silver Spring, MD.
