Technology
Global health training within VRiMS.
trainers to physically travel. This has major implications for military medicine, humanitarian response, and austere care.
Where next? The expanding vision VRiMS is no longer just delivering immersive surgical training – it is evolving into an intelligent, adaptive, and collaborative education ecosystem. The next phase of development will harness artificial intelligence and interactive learning to move beyond observation and towards simulation and assessment. Phase 1 focused on familiarisation:
Trainees learned how to access and navigate the VRiMS library of immersive surgical procedures, supported by 360° operative videos and VR anatomy modules. They were taught how to structure workshops, and facilitate basic VR- based learning. It was about access and delivery. Phase 2 (current phrase) introduces interactive
creation. Regional representatives are trained not only to deliver, but to design VR content. They will learn how to build interactive videos, embed digital overlays, and create avatars using synchronised VR, including remote VR
Ameen Mahmood
Ameen Mahmood is a medical student at Imperial College London, Founder and Chair of the VRiMS Surgical Society. Ameen’s degree is sponsored by the Royal Air Force and he is an aspiring military plastic surgeon. He is the lead author of the first formal multicentre study evaluating VRiMS in surgical education and his wider research focuses on innovation and global access to surgical training.
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www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I February 2026
anatomy sessions and Medverse-based virtual collaboration. This will allow students from across the UK and Ireland to connect and learn together inside shared virtual operating theatres. Phase 3 will be transformative. VRiMS will
begin to incorporate DICOM radiology files for personalised VR surgical planning, integrate ultrasound simulation, and develop ChatGPT- enabled virtual instructors and avatars using Gaussian-splitting and generative AI – paving the way for fully interactive six degrees of freedom (6DoF) surgical simulation. At that point, learners will not simply watch
surgery. They will rehearse it, receive real-time AI feedback, and collaborate in virtual theatres – guided by mentors who may be thousands of miles away. As Professor Dhanda explains: “We are
preparing a generation of trainees fluent in XR and AI, demonstrating how immersive technology can shape tomorrow’s surgical workforce.”
Conclusion: from novelty to necessity VRiMS represents not just a technological innovation, but a cultural one: shifting surgical
Professor Jag Dhanda
Professor Jag Dhanda is a Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial (OMFS) and Head and Neck surgeon at Queen Victoria Hospital. He is also a Professor of Surgery and Extended Reality in Medicine and Surgery. He completed his medical training in London and his dental training in Bristol. His surgical practice is free tissue transfer for complex head and neck reconstruction. He has received three RCSEng research fellowships for his PhD. Professor Dhanda is the founder and clinical
lead for Virtual Reality in Medicine and Surgery (
vrims.net). He regularly travels to low- to middle-income countries to develop teaching resources using extended reality.
education from privilege to accessibility, from chance to standardisation, and from passive observation to active understanding. As gaming headsets become surgical headsets, one thing becomes clear: the future of surgical training isn’t coming. It’s already here.
CSJ
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