Healthcare systems all over the world are under intense pressure. A perfect storm of the Covid pandemic, ageing populations and poor lifestyle choices have led to increasing demand. Neither the human nor financial resources available to provide the required care are growing fast enough. Software innovation will therefore be key to making healthcare delivery more efficient to cope with the growing strain. Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS) is making a positive difference to resolving this problem, so the team at Frog are proud to have led their latest funding round.
Across the global healthcare sector the onboarding, training, assessment and retention of staff is in a vicious cycle. The combination of high demand and existing staff shortages has led to there not being enough staff to provide these critical services. This increases pressure and causes high stress and people leaving. Replacing staff drains further resources and budget and more workload for remaining clinicians and ultimately, patient care suffers.
Breaking the cycle
Many current education and training methods are labour-intensive and unable to scale efficiently to meet the demand required to address this challenge. 91% of graduating nurses feel unprepared for clinical practice. This critical gap in education is what OMS addresses.
OMS was founded in 2017 by Michael Wallace and Dr. Jack Pottle, combining their backgrounds of launching digital products and medicine they set out to revolutionise assessment, training and onboarding of healthcare professionals. OMS provides immersive virtual reality simulations that allow doctors and nurses to practice delivering patient care in a safe, repeatable way without faculty intervention. The platform automatically and objectively scores performance and suggests improvements. The result is standardised training and assessment across hospitals and colleges in a scalable way.
Scale to save
Current training across healthcare institutions is expensive, requires significant staff intervention and can vary based on the individual delivering the training. The time and resources to work with individuals to ensure their skills up are to an adequate standard are not easily available. OMS works with institutions to support the healthcare workforce at every stage – from their first lesson in nursing school through clinical training and continuing professional development. It currently delivers over 35,000 simulations per month. The result is better, more consistently trained staff and lower training costs for the healthcare institutions.
Clear purpose
OMS aligns seamlessly with Frog’s commitment to purpose-driven software at scale – healthcare specifically is a sector where innovation can directly impact lives. This was super clear when we first met Michael. His passion for the OMS mission meant our first meeting ended up overrunning by more than 2 hours, demoing the product and discussing the challenges within healthcare today. This passion was felt all across Frog during our due diligence process. The company’s groundbreaking work in virtual reality (VR) healthcare training addresses a pressing need in the industry, making a tangible difference.
This reinforces our belief in the potential of transformative solutions in healthcare technology following another healthtech investment, Caspar Health. Their impact on patient care and healthcare management serves as a reference point for our confidence in OMS’s ability to drive positive change.
Real life impact
Where current trainees feel inadequately prepared to face real patients, OMS’ platform enables them to hone their questioning and skillset to reach diagnoses quicker and improve their confidence in a patient-free environment. In fact, 89% of learners say OMS improved their daily practice after 3 months.
The impact is not just felt at the trainee level. For organisations, using OMS can lead to a 74% reduction in staffing and equipment costs vs traditional training methods, helping to address critical healthcare training gaps by relieving the burden on educational institutions and health systems with virtual reality when they need it most.
Next episode
The Series A funding will enable greater expansion, allowing OMS to scale its offering across learner groups, increase the use of AI across its solutions, and further support clients in building their own content. The investment will also supercharge R&D efforts, ensuring that OMS remains at the forefront of innovation in healthcare training.
Frog’s in-house Operating Partners, combined with our Scale-Up Methodology, will support OMS with valuable resources and expertise to navigate challenges as they expand their reach and impact.
We strongly believe that OMS has all the right minerals of a fantastic team and product to become the next category leader in a massive market. Therefore, we are proud to lead Oxford Medical Simulation’s $12.6m Series A fundraise, partnering with existing shareholders, strategic partners and investors including ACF Investors.
We are very excited to be working with Michael, Jack and the broader team at OMS as they continue their journey to improve patient safety and training efficiency in healthcare.
