Virtual reality headset used in back operation
SURGEONS have used Apple’s new virtual reality goggles to help carry out an operation.
A medical team in London used a €3,200 Vision Pro headset to repair the spine of a male patient.
A scrub nurse working alongside the surgeon wore the device to help prepare, keep track of the procedure, and choose the right tools.
The device allowed them to see the real world but with superimposed virtual screens in front of them showing vital information – known as augmented reality.
The operation – carried out by surgeon Syed Aftab a fortnight ago at the private Cromwell hospital in London – comes amid a push for health services to embrace AI.
The Mater Hospital in Dublin is using AI to assess patient scans and speed up care in the emergency department.
And up to 5,000 cancer patients a year could benefit from the use of AI across three Dublin hospitals to examine scans and better define where best to target radiotherapy.
Apple’s Vision Pro is not yet available here. Costing $3,500 in the US, it was designed to create an immersive experience while playing computer games or watching films.
Suvi Verho, lead scrub nurse at London Independent Hospital, said the technology was a ‘gamechanger’, adding: ‘It eliminates human error. It eliminates the guesswork.
‘It gives you confidence in surgery.’
The underlying AI software also keeps a note of each stage of the operation – and in future will measure how well it went against similar procedures performed by other surgeons.
Mr Aftab said the software had the power to turn a scrub nurse he had never worked with – which is a regular occurrence – into someone with ten years’ experience.
He said the technology would ‘superpower’ his operating team into a Formula One pit crew, adding: ‘That’s the idea – that it doesn’t matter if you’ve never been in a pitstop in your life. You just put the headset on.’