Level Ex

This unexpected demand was the catalyst for creating Level Ex. Glassenberg, who comes from a family of doctors, brought his extensive background in the video game industry to medicine. His career included roles at LucasArts working on Star Wars games, leading the DirectX graphics team at Microsoft, and serving as CEO of a game publisher for Hollywood movies. He assembled a team of video game developers and medical experts to build a platform that applies game mechanics to solve challenges in medicine. In May 2020, Level Ex was acquired by Brainlab, a digital medical technology company, and now operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary while retaining its name and management team.

The company's business model focuses on providing a platform for medical training and education through interactive, high-fidelity mobile games. These games allow healthcare professionals to manage virtual patients, practice difficult procedures, and stay current with new medical devices and drug therapies in a risk-free environment. Revenue is generated through partnerships with top pharmaceutical and medical device companies, as well as medical societies, who sponsor content within the games to educate physicians about their products and the latest clinical practices. The games, which are free for healthcare professionals, are played by over 700,000 users and often provide continuing medical education (CME) credits. Level Ex has also developed cloud-based, multi-user platforms like HuddleUp and Remote Sales Detailing Games, which allow for collaborative virtual training sessions between sales representatives and physicians.

Level Ex offers a portfolio of games across various specialties, including anesthesiology (Airway Ex), gastroenterology (Gastro Ex), pulmonology (Pulm Ex), and cardiology (Cardio Ex). The company continues to expand into new areas like dermatology, orthopedics, and oncology. These applications leverage advanced video game technology and cognitive neuroscience to create realistic medical scenarios. A key selling point is the platform's ability to simulate complex and rare cases with precise physics and photorealistic graphics, providing an engaging alternative to traditional medical education methods. This technology has also been leveraged to create virtual sales tools for medical device companies and to develop a training framework for NASA astronauts to handle medical situations in space.