Virtual screens in the operating room: Apple's Vision Pro helps with spinal surgery
A “gamechanger” in medicine: Apple's Vision Pro successfully assists a team of surgeons during spinal surgery.
A team of surgeons at London's Cromwell Hospital used the Apple Vision Pro during spinal surgery. Throughout the operation, senior nurse Suvi Verho wore the headset, which displayed vital information on virtual screens. Among other things, the headset helped the nurse prepare for surgery and select the right instruments for the surgeon.
Verho described Mixed Reality in the operating room as a “gamechanger” to the DailyMail, explaining that the technology eliminates “human error and guesswork” and ensures greater safety during surgery. The surgeon involved, Syed Aftab, also supports the use of XR in the operating room. The software could turn a scrub nurse he has never worked with into someone with ten years of experience.
The application was provided by software developer eXeX, which specializes in implementing Mixed Reality in hospitals.
XR in medicine: An important use case for Apple
Mixed reality in hospitals is no longer a curiosity. As the technology continues to evolve, market researchers now see AR and VR in medicine as a potential billion-dollar market. Microsoft's Hololens 2 has already been used in spinal surgery. In Germany, specialists are also using AR for spinal surgery. According to Prof. Dr. Yu-Mi Ryang, head of neurosurgery at the Helios Klinikum Berlin-Buch, virtually all surgeons are able to achieve perfect results with the help of AR.
So it's no surprise that Vision Pro in healthcare is an important use case for Apple. The company recently unveiled several other medical applications for visionOS. Stryker, for example, is developing the myMako app to help doctors plan joint replacement surgeries, and Siemens Healthineers is using Cinematic Reality to provide medical students with interactive holograms of the human body.
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