Julie Clover
UC San Diego surgeons have been testing the Apple Vision Pro for surgery, performing more than 20 minimally invasive procedures while wearing the headset. Surgeon and director of the UC San Diego Center for the Future of Surgery Santiago Horgan recently spoke with Time magazine to discuss the Vision Pro.
Horgan said the Vision Pro could be “more transformative” than robotic devices used to assist with surgeries. While the Vision Pro is expensive for consumers, it is affordable for hospitals compared to most medical equipment, and it is a widely available technology that many hospitals across the country will be able to use.
During laparoscopic surgeries, doctors guide a camera through a small incision, and the camera’s image is displayed on a nearby screen. Doctors have to look at the screen while operating on the patient, a process that the Vision Pro makes easier. Horgan says surgeons need to view CT scans, monitor vital signs, and more during these surgeries, and all of that information can be viewed through the Vision Pro.
This saves surgeons from having to contort their bodies into awkward positions, which reduces discomfort during surgeries.
While Horgan has tried other headsets like Google Glass and Microsoft’s HoloLens, the displays weren’t good enough. But the Vision Pro has high-resolution OLED displays, and the results were “better than [UCSD surgeons] even expected.”
In surgeries using the Vision Pro, doctors, assistants, and nurses wear headsets instead of looking at screens, and no patients have abandoned surgeries with the Vision Pro.
UCSD is also testing the Vision Pro’s ability to create 3D X-ray images, and the team may also test it in other medical applications. For more on how the Vision Pro and other similar devices are being tested for medical use, read the full Time article.
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