The Apple Vision Pro is the Cupertino tech champ’s latest gadget. It promotes these VR goggles as a work tool, but it wants them to become as versatile and ubiquitous as the iPhone.
It has yet to see widespread use because it has only been out for a few months and costs $3,500. However, it may have found its home in operating rooms.
Apple published a blog explaining how it unlocks “new opportunities for health app developers.” Also, Richard Vincent, CEO of Fundamental VR, said it can reduce surgical training by 40 percent to 200 percent.
How does the Apple Vision Pro improve surgeries?
Last week, Apple explained how the Vision Pro can facilitate robot-assisted knee and hip surgeries by enabling surgery apps like the myMako from Stryker medical tech company.
The post says the app “allows surgeons the ability to access intricate surgical plan details and insights at their fingertips in a 3D-native, intuitive, and dynamic way.”
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The myMako app and Apple Vision Pro allow surgeons to visualize and review patients’ surgical plans. Robert Cohen, Stryker’s president of Digital, Robotics, and Enabling Technologies, said:
“With Apple Vision Pro, Stryker’s market-leading enabling technologies such as Mako SmartRobotics have the exciting potential to transform the way surgeons think about preoperative planning and the intraoperative experience, all consistent with Stryker’s mission to make healthcare better.”
UK news website Metro says the VR goggles enabled a scrub nurse to assist in an operation. The official NHS job site says these are the role’s responsibilities:
- Preparing all the necessary complex instruments and equipment including microscopes, lasers, and endoscopes
- Working with the surgeon to provide instruments, needles, swabs, and other materials as required
- Responsibility for the surgical instruments, equipment, and swabs
- Act as a link between the surgical team and other parts of the theatre and hospital
Dr. Syed Aftab praised the Apple Vision Pro and said it turned a scrub nurse into someone with 10 years of surgery experience.
The doctor said it can “superpower” his operating team into a Formula One pit crew. “That’s the idea; it doesn’t matter if you’ve never been in a pitstop in your life,” he said.
Soon, 9to5Mac says VR technologies like the Apple Vision Pro could become essential in operating rooms.