Education tech company selected on NHS Innovation Accelerator programme

Education technology company Virti has been selected to join the NHS Innovation Accelerator programme.

Virti uses virtual and augmented reality combined with artificial intelligence to transport users into realistic, hard-to-access environments and assesses them under pressure to reduce anxiety; and improve human performance and outcomes regardless of geographical boundaries. The system enables cost-reduction and scaling of in-person coaching and training for corporates and healthcare providers.

It was founded by trauma and orthopaedic surgeon Dr Alexander Young and launched 12 months ago. In that time, the company has gained enterprise customers in the UK and US and has won a number of high-profile awards including the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Triennial Innovation Prize and, most recently, winning the VR Healthcare Category at the VR Awards.

Dr Alexander Young, CEO and founder Virti, said: “It is a huge honour to be selected onto the NHS’ NIA programme and a testament to our ongoing work with the UK’s National Health Service. We are delighted to be the first Virtual and Augmented Reality company selected onto the NIA and proud that our evidence-based VR/AR training platform will now be scaled to further hospitals, physicians and patients through the NIA. We are particularly excited to help deliver the NHS’ recently published ‘Health and Care Workforce Strategy to 2027’ and further demonstrate the positive impacts that immersive technology can have on corporates, employees and for healthcare.”

Now entering its fourth year, the NHS’ National Innovation Accelerator programme is designed to scale the top evidence-based health solutions throughout the NHS and is delivered in partnership with England’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).

Dr Séamus O'Neill, chair of the AHSN Network, said: “The NHS Innovation Accelerator is one of the flagship programmes of the NHS. We are very proud of the impact it is having in supporting innovators across the NHS and social care. Many very promising NIA innovations have benefitted from visibility and evidence generation through the AHSNs. It is gratifying too that we are already seeing a number of the NIA innovations getting traction in terms of adoption and spread with patient and population benefit as a consequence. We look forward to working with the new NIA Fellows over the coming months to develop and deploy these life-saving innovations at scale across the country.”

Recruitment onto the NIA includes a review by over 100 clinical, patient and commercial assessors, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).