The 3 Advantages of Augmented Reality in The OR

Patient safety during and after surgery has improved in recent decades due to several factors.

These include the widespread use of checklists, the implementation of quality improvement and team-based care models, and the introduction of measurement tools to monitor performance and outcomes.

Surgeons and patients can now benefit from emerging and innovative technologies (AR, AI, ML,...) that have the potential to improve accuracy and reproducibility, optimize minimally invasive surgeries, and shorten patient recovery and operation time.

Augmented reality (AR) is one of these technologies that hold great promise, thanks in large part to the enhanced visualization and image guidance capabilities it provides.

3 Advantages of AR in the operating room

The operating room could benefit greatly from augmented reality, as follows:

1. Increase the safety of surgeries.

2. Reduce expenses of surgeries.

3. Optimize training for residents.

1. Making surgery safer

By applying augmented reality, all members of the operation room have accurate pre-operative images to get the best results from well-planned procedures.

Anesthesiologists could easily monitor all aspects of a patient’s physiology and supervise all essential medications.

Similarly, surgical nurses ensure that all required equipment is ready and available. Surgeons could be completely immersed in the operating procedure without any distractions.

2. Reduce hospital expenses

Due to the use of AR in hospitals, it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of money spent on many display screens that need to be connected to some devices such as ultrasound or endoscopy.

AR can provide a shared view to monitor and analyze all patient data in real time.

3. Optimize surgical training

Augmented reality can help medical centers and hospitals to have a much faster tool, cheaper and more convenient for residents to prepare for surgery by performing all procedures before entering the operating room.

Augmented reality is one of the most valuable technologies that can make surgery much safer and more promising.

Applying augmented reality in surgery and operating rooms will be an essential part of future hospitals.

Augmented reality is already used in the operating room in several specialties, especially in neurosurgery and orthopedics.