Khari Parker
Phoebe Pilapil
Jay Patel
sahil raibagi
shrey patel
Rutgers Business School
Jeana Wirtenberg
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Their innovation has been linked to two of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Virtual Medical coaching has provided accessible education and is also improving health in the environment.
Virtual Medical Coaching offers healthcare simulation for learners and educators in radiography and childbirth, with simulations in CT, MRI, and mammography in development. Using commercial VR consoles and headsets paired with adaptive virtual simulations, VMC offers students a way to remotely connect with real-time feedback and big data analytics for radiography training without jeopardizing safety, ethics, compliance, or patient care. The founder of Virtual Medical Coaching is James Hayes. Hayes was a semifinalist for Innovator of the year in New Zealand in 2021 for developing and implementing the way learning occurs in the lives of healthcare students. Hayes told us that his innovation came to be because of a market need. Hayes also mentioned that education is a mixture of hands-on learning and a hand that guides students in the right direction. Virtual Medical Coaching accomplishes both of these very effectively.
Initially, the only internal stakeholders were James Hayes and his cofounder, Ana. Both of them bought into the idea of achieving more significant equity in education through virtualizing expensive and difficult-to-achieve education. External shareholders such as customers, were communicated via emails and conference presentations to demo new ideas. Colleagues inspired James Hayes to find a new way to educate the youth. Their organization's story began when they realized people were struggling to find the right tools they needed to grow in their medical professional journey.
VMC's innovation has been linked to two of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: providing accessible education and improving health. The main business headquarters are located in New Zealand. In the short term, they started as a small group, making it hard for them to get the innovation out until they met Ana. Ana worked on attracting a more diverse team. Now there are seven nationalities and more women on the team than men. This was done by changing words in job advertisements to ensure they weren't just targeting a specific portion of the population. The long term effect of the innovation is how it helps radiography educators and learners by giving them access to portable, open-access simulations. More educators will now have the resources to learn in a simulation environment.
James Hayes was the seed investor for VMC, which he accomplished by taking a mortgage out on his house and selling some of his investments. He stated, "If I didn't invest 100% of myself into my project, how could I expect anyone else to?” VCM has a grand customizable professional development approach that ensures everyone has time to do what they need to do as part of their role and is provided the help they need to do their role as efficiently as possible. This is done through consulting and meeting with industry experts for one-on-one coaching.
According to Hayes, his company has a much better work environment because of the diversity, especially since most other software companies are predominantly men. VMC has a team that works very well together. Mixed in with the hard work that the group puts in, the company also offers periods of downtime where employees can relax and join together in social outings and activities. Having so many different cultures within the company has enabled many different ideas to be brought into the learning software that they produce. People all around the world learn differently which includes different learning styles based on the cultures that they originate from, and having a diverse work group helps adapt their software to this. Not only do they provide accessible education and improve health, but reduce inequalities. One of the great things about VMC is that their team is 60% female, which is rare considering this male-dominated software tech industry. Medical imagery machinery is expensive and not easily transferable. The innovation offers extraordinary advantages to radiography educators and learners by giving them access to portable, open-access simulation. More educators will now have the resources to learn in a simulation environment.
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James Hayes, CEO
Virtual Medical Coaching offers healthcare simulation for learners and educators in radiography and childbirth, with simulations in CT, MRI, and mammography in development. Using commercial VR consoles and headsets paired with adaptive virtual simulations, VMC offers students a way to remotely connect with real-time feedback and big data analytics for radiography training without jeopardizing safety, ethics, compliance, or patient care.