15 surgeons from 13 different countries have undertaken 13 mixed reality orthopedic operations as part of a 24-hour event. In the United Arab Emirates, the surgery was carried out at Burjeel Medical City in Abu Dhabi. The surgeons virtually collaborated using Microsoft HoloLens 2, and were later joined by Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil, Chairman and Managing Director, VPS Healthcare Group for a roundtable ‘How UAE is leveraging digital for patient care’, joined by Dr. Jaber Alkhyeli – Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon and Dr. Rashed Alshaeel – Director of Orthopedic & Trauma, VPS Burjeel Medical City.
HoloLens 2 offers the most comfortable and immersive mixed reality experience available – enhanced by the reliability, security, and scalability of cloud and AI services from Microsoft. Together with Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, the mixed reality communication app from Microsoft empowers medical organizations all around the world.
The surgery toured a number of countries, including France, India, UAE, South Africa, Ukraine, Germany, Belgium, Morocco, Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, USA and UK. Equipped with the HoloLens 2, the surgeons in each country were able to visualize and operate surgery via hologram; share their real-time view of the surgery, benefitting from remote peers’ expertise on different clinical cases; and train their peers remotely, enriching their surgical practices.
Dr. Rashed Alshaeel and Dr. Jaber Alkhyeli demonstrated the capabilities of HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist. The surgeons showed how they are empowered to share their field of view and share best practices during patient operations. The mixed reality app provides surgeons with capabilities of being able to interact with anatomical images of their patients in holograms projected in real time, as well as having access to interactive tutorials during the surgeries.
“More than just a tool, it’s a way of connecting surgeons from all around the world, share best practices and improve surgical skills,” said Dr. Rashed Alshaeel. “Our aim is to showcase how Microsoft technologies including HoloLens, Azure AI, Dynamics 365 & Surface and our partner ecosystem are changing healthcare collaboration. It’s not just a nice-to-have technology but a real game changer for a whole industry. We already have several healthcare customers with shareable ROI. The world needs to know about it.”
HoloLens 2 is a wireless, holographic mixed reality headset that connects with apps and solutions to enhance or enable collaboration, innovation and productivity. Compared to previous designs, HoloLens 2 is lighter, more comfortable and immersive for the surgeon. Hand and eye-tracking technology detects where the surgeon’s gaze is, allowing them to operate with greater precision.
“Microsoft is working to innovate in the interest of advancing the health of people all around the world, and technology such as HoloLens 2, with its counterparts Azure AI, Dynamics 365 & Surface are accelerating transformation across the health technology space.” said Haider Salloum, Small, Medium & Corporate Director, Microsoft UAE. “Through its AI for Health initiative, Microsoft also has a great emphasis on accelerating medical research to advance prevention, diagnosis, and treatments.
In addition to the 24-hour broadcast, the event was complemented by some 25 recorded roundtable discussions focused on the contribution of technology to surgical practice, and the future of medicine. Over 60 international healthcare professionals discussed the strengths of mixed reality, artificial intelligence, and more generally, technological innovation, for their discipline. These panels were also an opportunity to highlight the importance of the development of e-health and present the future of training in the healthcare field.
