Opinion: Bengaluru Reads Your X-Ray. Chennai May Train Your Doctor

"Prick the patient's index finger," said the voice in my ear. As the lancet in my hand was about to make contact with flesh, it cautioned me: "Avoid pricking the pad of the finger because it contains more nerve endings which will be more painful."

Using Meta Platforms Inc.'s Quest 2 headset, I was conducting the first nursing procedure of my life in a highly authentic virtual-reality setting, complete with gloves, cotton swabs, disposal bins and, yes, a patient waiting for me to draw blood to check its glucose level. The VR training program, which helped even a novice like me get it right the first time, has been designed by young techno-entrepreneurs from Chennai, in India's south.

Their firm is one of the 200-plus startups incubated by the city's Indian Institute of Technology Research Park, a venture supported by the government but funded by alumni and companies. The five-year-old MediSim VR has moved beyond the hatching phase: With 2,000 students training currently in the labs it has set up in medical and nursing schools, it's emerging as a serious player.

Recently, MediSim VR roped in Harvard Medical School's simulation guru Gianluca De Novi as an adviser, and tied up with Hartford HealthCare Corp.'s Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation, or CESI. The goal is to crack large and lucrative medical education markets like the US, UK and Australia.