Footnotes

• Funding: IVH and RA are grateful for support from the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre funding scheme. IVH also receives a clinical doctoral grant from the Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders, Belgium.

• Competing interests: None declared.

• This editorial was written on behalf of on behalf of the EVEResT group (European Virtual reality Endovascular RESearch Team): Professor Nick Cheshire, Vascular Surgery, Imperial College Healthcare Trust, London, UK; Professor Peter Gaines, Interventional Radiology, Sheffield Vascular Institute, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, UK; Professor Frank Vermassen, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium; Dr Iqbal Malik, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Imperial College Healthcare Trust, London, UK; Dr Mohamad Hamady, Consultant Interventional Radiologist, Imperial College Healthcare Trust, London, UK; Mr Rajesh Aggarwal, Clinical Lecturer, Imperial College Healthcare Trust, London, UK; Dr Isabelle Van Herzeele, Research and Clinical Vascular Fellow, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium.