If you thought Apple Vision Pro was only useful for immersive movie watching and magnifying your MacBook’s screen, think again. A team of surgeons in the United Kingdom just used a $3,500 Apple headset to assist in real spine surgery. Yes really.
Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, I don’t mean that the surgeons themselves had Vision Pro headsets strapped to their faces during the procedure. Instead, it was worn by an assistant surgical scrub nurse who used the device to access “surgical settings and procedural guides from the sterile field of the operating room.”
Which, if you think about it, is pretty sensible. I’m not a doctor, but I’ve seen every episode of House MD, so having someone with large amounts of easily accessible medical data alongside the surgeon could be a game-changer. And since the Apple Vision Pro has pretty decent video streaming and doesn’t require the user to hold any kind of controller, I suppose the scrub nurse could also help materially, if needed.
The surgery in question was two microspinal procedures performed at London’s Cromwell Hospital in the United Kingdom. The hospital has partnered with EXEXOa technology platform that leverages artificial intelligence and spatial computing for surgical organization and workflow optimization.
eXeX software works with Vision Pro to provide nurses and technicians with “data and visualization never before available.”
According to Syed Aftab, an orthopedic spine surgeon, spatial computing technology makes a “huge difference in the way we provide care to our patients.”
He explained: “The software is perfect and has improved efficiency within the Complex Spine team. “It is a real privilege to be the first team in the UK and Europe to use this software in surgery and I am looking forward to seeing how this technology progresses and the impact it can have on UK hospitals.”
Of course, those with longer memories will note that Apple is not the first to place an AR device inside the operating room. Microsoft’s often forgotten HoloLens 2 has also been used in a medical setting. According to the National Library of MedicineMicrosoft headsets have been deployed “in a variety of applications, such as medical and surgical aids and systems, medical education and simulation, architecture, and various engineering fields.”
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