If you have ever left an unpleasant medical appointment wondering, “Gosh, this doctor has no idea what it’s like to be the person in the chair,” there’s a company you should know about.

OtheReality is an Israeli social impact startup that has developed a virtual reality (VR) platform designed to improve medical staff empathy, which the founders believe is essential for optimizing patient experiences and outcomes. They say better empathy skills also can improve employee resilience and wellbeing.

The platform creates individualized “empathy workouts” for medical personnel, where trainees are immersed in virtual scenarios that simulate specific doctor-patient interactions, such as delivering bad news.

Following the VR session, users participate in an app-based workshop to develop cognitive and motivational empathy, as well as improve communication skills.

“We realized that there’s a very serious need,” explains 23-year-old company founder and CMO Yair Neiger. 

“We have these great, talented, smart people working in the medical field as doctors, as nurses, as medical staff; but even with all their experience and wisdom, many of them lack the ability to see the world through the eyes of their patients.”

Teenage founder

The company was dreamed up by Neiger when he was only 15-years-old.

“I was sitting in class and I was very upset,” recalls Neiger. “We had a lesson where my teacher tried to teach us about empathy, but they weren’t able to provide us with any tools to experience that empathy towards other people.”

From that flashpoint of inspiration, Neiger began developing his idea into a tangible product: a virtual reality empathy experience that could be used for a wide array of educational applications.

For a teenager who had never run a business before, it was an uphill climb to success.

“I wasn’t an experienced startup founder or anything — the thing that allowed me to get into this world was that I participated in a youth hackathon at Tel Aviv University in 2016 and won. The prize was to join their startup accelerator course, which I took part in for a year,” Neiger explains.

After completing the university’s accelerator course, he joined the Jerusalem MassChallenge startup accelerator in 2017. “I was 16, the youngest ever to take part in the program up till then,” he says.

His company was named one of the top 10 cohort startups.

“Following that, we received support and we flew to Boston and to New York; we held some business meetings there, had a validation trip and came back with a lot of new insight,” Neiger says. 

Doctor-patient relationships

Until then, the company was focused on operating within the educational sector, but the company’s trip to the US led to the decision to shift toward the medical sector instead.

“Unfortunately, the educational sector wasn’t growing fast enough for us [to focus on it],” explains Neiger, adding that switching its sights to medical staff training enables the company to make a significant difference in doctor-patient relationships.

Today, OtheReality is a full-fledged startup with a dedicated team of seven people, four of whom are cofounders — including Neiger’s father, Bar-llan University Prof. Motti Neiger, an expert in media, narratives and technology and an experienced entrepreneur.

The company has gained recognition in the startup ecosystem and is planning to expand its library of VR experiences and deepen research through pilots in Israel and abroad. 

Pilot in hospitals

In March, the company entered a collaboration with Bar-Ilan University and Sheba Medical Center’s ARC Innovation Center, resulting in $100,000 in funding and a pilot in Israeli hospitals.

“As a startup aiming to boost empathy in the healthcare system via our VR-based platform, we are thrilled to join forces with ARC, one of the world’s leading centers for digital innovation,” said OtheReality CEO and cofounder Elik Almog. 

“Together with our new partners from Sheba’s Medical Simulation Center — Prof. Amitai Ziv and Ravid Segal — and with the unparallel umbrella of ARC as an innovative hub for creative startups, we aim to revolutionize patient care by allowing medical teams a continuous empathy and communication skills training, which will bring real value for patients, providers and healthcare organizations.” 

The younger Neiger says he is proud that despite his youth when the concept was conceived, his idea blossomed into an actual company.

“The future is looking bright. And it’s very exciting to be working in this field and making an impact on the world,” he tells ISRAEL21c. 

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