Better Surgeries, Better Treatment: Augmented Reality in Healthcare

After the poor market performance of Google Glass, the visual headset developed by the world’s most popular search engine company, the allure of augmented reality (AR) may be puzzling.

Very much in its early days, AR technology overlays computerized images onto objects and spaces. You can interact with these 3D models, and their appearance can change or move according to the setting around you. They offer extra information right before your eyes, giving context to heaps of unstructured data.

In medicine, the potential of AR to better train doctors and treat patients is great. Research already shows it can benefit surgeons in the operating room, which offers incredible promise for the future when the technology fully hits its stride.

Here are some of the latest devices that may pave the way for AR in healthcare.

Google Glass

Many people’s first introduction to the concept of augmented reality is with Google Glass. The device, a set of glasses equipped with a computer, connects to the Internet and takes vocal commands from the wearer to retrieve certain information. The search results are either read back to the person or displayed on an LCD screen in front of the lens.

It’s not considered true augmented reality because visual data only shows up on the screen and isn’t registered in a fixed and precision location in the wearer’s environment. However, a study from Stanford Medical School reveals its hands-free features allowed medical residents to perform surgery better than those who didn’t use it.

Using the app VitalStream, vital sign monitoring software, residents had crucial patient information continually displayed before them. They didn’t need to look away at other monitoring equipment as much as non-Google Glass wearers, letting them focus more on their patients.

Google Glass is currently being redesigned, and Google has not announced when it may be re-released.

Microsoft HoloLens

Slated for release next year, the Microsoft HoloLens is a wearable holographic computer that projects 3D and cross-sectional models into the physical environment. Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, wants to use the technology to teach its students medicine.

The device will allow students to walk around and view anatomical representations of the human body, showing the skeleton, muscles, and organs all in relation to each other. Students will be able to interact with and move the life-sized body parts with the wave of their hands to better understand their function and anatomy.

The technology may lessen the need to use cadavers and offer more realistic training, so surgeons are more prepared and less likely to make errors when operating on humans.

Surgical Navigation Advanced Platform

In June 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an AR device that allows surgeons to see and analyze each step before they make it. Called Surgical Navigation Advanced Platform (SNAP), data from a patient’s CT and MRI scans are transformed into 3D imagery. They can be rotated and made semi-transparent to enable different perspectives, giving surgeons insight into the best course of action and how to prevent errors.

While the concept of augmented reality assisted surgery has recently gained more traction, is has existed for decades. In 1998, Henry Fuchs of the University of North Carolina proposed a design and prototype of a 3D visualization system that could solve issues associated with laparoscopy surgery.

Minimally invasive surgical or “keyhole” procedures like arthroscopy and laparoscopy reduce the time a patient spends in hospital and recovering. Through small incisions, doctors can assess and treat damage to joints and tissue, often with the help of a tiny video camera on an endoscope.

However, the images the doctors see are two-dimensional, forcing them to estimate the depth of structures in the body, and also display a small field of view. The images demand exceptional hand-eye coordination, because the screens they’re projected onto often face a different direction than the way a surgeon is facing. As a result, the surgeon’s hand movements will not match up with how the medical instruments move on the screen.

Using augmented reality in laparoscopy surgery, as per Fuchs’s design, surgeons could see 3D internal images superimposed onto a body part by wearing a head-mounted display. This would allow them to view the structures directly, in larger format, and clearly determine depth.

Image source: Microsoft HoloLens

This article was originally published as part of the “Health Technology and the Future” series on Beacon Reader.

Originally published at TechAble World.