After launching the first-ever virtual reality app to allow doctors to drop in on surgical rooms around the world for education, GIBLIB announced on Wednesday that it has raked in $2.5 million in seed funding.
The Los Angeles-based medical streaming platform plans to use the round to enhance its offerings and expand its online medical library and lecture series. The round included funding from Mayo Clinic, along with Venture Reality Fund, Wavemaker 360, USC Marshall Venture Fund and Michelson 20MM.
“We want to have the largest library of medical lectures and surgical videos in the world,” said Brian Conyer, GIBLIB’s CEO and co-founder. “We started with surgeries to provide focus where we felt we could offer the most value … We slowly started creating lectures, but we couldn’t promote it heavily and didn’t have the bandwidth to expand it. This seed funding allows us to do that.”
Founded in 2015, GIBLIB aims to expand education access to medical professionals around the world. In the surgical field in particular, where one mistake can come with enormous costs, the best way to learn new procedures is to observe. However, learning in person from the world’s top surgeons is off the table for many physicians.
We want to have the largest library of medical lectures and surgical videos in the world.”
To solve for that challenge, GIBLIB created a streaming platform that blends high-end video production with knowledge from physicians at leading academic medical centers. Its videos allow doctors to turn their homes or offices into teaching hospitals, where they can look in on the operating rooms of the top minds in their fields and observe how they complete a tricky sigmoidectomy or gastric bypass.
Eventually, the company plans to include videos across all medical specialties, Conyer said.
Last year, the company partnered with doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to create a digitally streamed course in gastrointestinal surgery. The course was the first of its kind to receive accreditation as continuing education for medical professionals.
“With our partners’ support, GIBLIB is uniquely positioned to disrupt how medical professionals worldwide take on their lifelong educational journeys by providing a dedicated online destination with the best learning experiences for every specialty, ” Conyer said in a statement. “We are honored to have continued support from our investors who have been instrumental in bringing GIBLIB’s vision to reality.”
