A DESIGNER who previously worked in the games industry has won £10,000 for his new business start-up in Dunfermline which will use virtual reality software to teach surgery.  

Andrew Turner is the managing director and co-founder of ProCedureVR Ltd and he accepted the grant at the Scottish Edge Awards last month. 

The company started life in January 2023 and is the creation of two games industry leaders and a senior surgeon from Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

The idea is to build specialist surgical procedure libraries for training surgeons to learn the steps of each surgical operation, using the same kind of virtual reality headsets that gamers use. 

Mr Turner explained: "Trainee surgeons have very limited opportunities to practice surgery when they are training, leading to a lack of confidence and slowing their pathways to leading surgery.

"We plan to create immersive teaching, coaching and evaluation environments in VR, that can be used with low-cost consumer VR headsets, costing the same as a game, to provide trainee surgeons with the preparation they need, so that they get the most from the limited advanced practical experience they will receive.

"We intend to sell this globally and provide it free to developing countries, enabling them to teach a wide range of surgical procedures to the next generation of surgeons."

The £10,000 Scottish Edge wildcard award will help the company bring their ideas to life and along the pathway to creating their first prototype.

To win, ProCedureVR provided details of their innovation, created a video pitch and were grilled about their plans by innovation experts.

The feedback from the judging panel included: “An excellent pitch from a very credible founder who is clearly an expert in their field.”

They added that it was a "very exciting business proposal”. 

Mr Turner previously worked for Dundee based YoYo Games, the creator of GameMaker Studio 2, and had responsibility for the education product sector, providing services to schools, colleges and universities throughout the world.