Virtual surgical planning is defined as the development of a personalized, preoperative surgical plan using an interactive 3D anatomic digital twin of a patient’s heart created from CT or MRI. With rapid advances in digital technology, surgeons can now manipulate these anatomic digital twins in an immersive VR environment – which has all but replaced 3D printed heart models at several academic institutions. Even in the early stages of adoption, there has been evidence to suggest this more detailed and personalized approach to surgical planning will greatly improve individual patient outcomes. Yet, there remains a significant barrier to adoption because simple-to-use VR solutions developed specifically for surgeons do not exist. Our internal development team at Cincinnati Children’s created the Virtual Reality Surgical Simulation Suite (VR3S) to address this barrier to entry, with an initial focus on congenital heart surgery (CHS) – one of the most complex surgical specialties in modern surgery.