Immersive VR training creates safer operating rooms
A Carolina-affiliated startup uses realistic virtual reality scenarios to improve teamwork, curb burnout and keep patients safer.
A patient rests on the operating table. The electrocardiogram screen shows a slow, steady heartbeat. The attending physician calmly asks his surgical assistant to “finish up” as he steps across the hall to another case. All seems well. But moments later, a nurse assists with a surgical drain, which overfills rapidly. BeepBeepBeep. A second nurse: “Can we get a pulse check? We need some help in here.” The operating room isn’t equipped with blood supply. “Code blue.” The team moves frantically — chest compressions followed by a flat line. “Time of death: 14:05.” Cut to a woman on her phone, confused and distraught. ”I’m sorry, what? Complications?”
This isn’t a trailer for the latest Netflix medical drama. It’s an immersive virtual reality training developed by UNC-affiliated startup MaiaZura. The interactive platform places physicians, nurses and other medical staff in true-to-life simulations of medical environments where they and their teams learn how to improve communication, culture, leadership, efficiency and reliability. The goal is to help health care organizations reduce clinician burnout, improve teamwork and elevate patient safety.
Dr. Jin Ra, Professor of Surgery and Associate Chair for Quality and Safety in the UNC School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery, uses a VR headset to engage with a Bizon360 Teamwork training module. (Photo courtesy of MaiaZura)
Confronting health care burnout, safety errors
Research shows nearly 70% of health care errors are directly linked to poor teamwork and communication. Approximately 40% of nurses intend to leave the profession within the next five years, driven primarily by burnout, stress and labor shortages. The costs of medical errors reach tens of billions of dollars annually.
Such issues may be preventable, says Lukasz Mazur, founder and CEO of MaiaZura. He is an associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine and adjunct assistant professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC School of Information and Library Science.
His research and experience in industrial engineering, human factors and patient safety give him insight into how mental workload, poor system design and unclear roles contribute to errors.
“There are a variety of tools, concepts and philosophies that hospitals use to train people to become better teams,” Mazur said. “MaiaZura is the motivational layer that comes underneath those existing training methods and sets the stage for people to open their minds to actually engage with the concepts,” he said.
Lukasz Mazor is the CEO and founder of MaiaZura as well as an associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine and adjunct assistant professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC School of Information and Library Science. (Submitted photo)
Immersive, VR-driven learning environments
The company’s signature technology, Bizon360 Teamwork, replicates high-stakes surgical or other environments in immersive VR, like the scenario described above. “We take you through the full experience and all the layers,” Mazur said.
The training also takes learners to the nurse’s dinner table, where her daughter observes, “You’re so busy lately, just working all the time.” Participants listen in when a family member gets a call saying their loved one died during surgery.
“Our training tells you the whole story about why the tragedy occurred, even though no one in the situation wanted or expected it to happen,” Mazur said.
Improving 90% of safety behaviors
Bizon360 training can lead to fewer errors, improved reliability and a better culture, Mazur said. Results from a 2025 pilot study showed that surgeons who participated in MaiaZura’s immersive training for 30 minutes demonstrated statistically significant improvements in 90% of observed safety behaviors.
“Our approach is different because it’s immersive and creates empathy from different perspectives, which activates people to learn,” Mazur said. “In our training, you can move around the screen and choose to be any person you want. If you want to be the attending physician or nurse, you get the perspective of the physician or nurse. If you want to be a patient, you’ll see the whole thing from patient’s perspective. This immersion captures peoples’ hearts and minds and motivates them to learn.”
