Despite suffering modest sales with consumers, Apple’s Vision Pro mixed-reality headset seems to be finding an unexpected but promising application in the medical field, particularly in surgery, according to a new report Tuesday.
So as Vision Pro helps surgeons and patients — and even cash-strapped medical providers — it could be a big deal in healthcare.
Surgeons and healthcare could benefit greatly from Vision Pro as a surgical tool
News of Vision Pro helping surgeons has come from the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Now it comes from California. Dr. Santiago Horgan, who performed the world’s first robotically assisted gastric-bypass surgery 24 years ago, believes the Vision Pro could be equally transformative in operating rooms, Time magazine reported. Its $3,500 cost may be prohibitive to some consumers, but that price actually makes it a bargain for hospitals compared to specialty surgical equipment.
“This is the same level of revolution, but will impact more lives because of the access to it,” Horgan said.
At the University of California, San Diego, Horgan and his team have conducted over 20 minimally invasive surgeries using the Apple Vision Pro. The results have been impressive.
“We are all blown away: It was better than we even expected,” Horgan said, after he led the first surgery with the Apple headset, for a paraesophageal hernia, after the headset’s approval for use by the University of California. Prior to that, he’d tried headsets like Google Glass and Microsoft HoloLens, but found their resolution lacking compared to Vision Pro’s.
Helps ease surgeons’ repetitive strain injuries
The primary advantage of the Vision Pro in surgery lies in its ability to improve surgeons’ ergonomics and efficiency. In laparoscopic procedures, surgeons traditionally need to look away from the patient to view monitors displaying camera feeds and vital signs. This constant shifting of focus can lead to discomfort and potential injuries over time.
With the Vision Pro, surgeons can view all necessary information without taking their eyes off the patient. The headset allows for a more seamless integration of this information into the surgeon’s field of view.
“I’m usually turning around and stopping the operation to see a CT scan; looking to see what happened with the endoscopy; looking at the monitor for the heart rate,” Horgan explained.
The potential impact on surgeons’ health is significant. A 2022 study found that most surgeons experience discomfort during minimal-access surgery, with about one-fifth considering early retirement due to frequent pain. The Vision Pro could alleviate these issues by improving ergonomics and reducing the need for awkward positioning during procedures.
Photo: UC San Diego Health
Cost-effectiveness
Christopher Longhurst, chief clinical and innovation officer at UC San Diego Health, highlighted the cost-effectiveness of the Vision Pro in a medical setting.
“The monitors in the operating room are probably $20,000 to $30,000,” he said. “So $3,500 for a headset is like budget dust in the healthcare setting.”
This relatively low cost could make advanced visualization technology accessible to smaller community hospitals with limited budgets.
The Vision Pro’s versatility is another key advantage. “If everything we wanted to use in augmented reality is proprietarily attached to a different device, then we have 10 headsets and 15 different monitors,” Dr. Miguel Burch from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles noted. “But with this one, you can use it with anything that has a video feed.”
Beyond improving surgical procedures, Vision Pro shows promise in other medical applications. Longhurst mentions ongoing tests for creating 3D radiology imaging, while Dr. Ahmed Ghazi from Johns Hopkins has used similar technology for “surgical rehearsals” with patients, enhancing their understanding of upcoming procedures.
Patient privacy and data security
However, as with any new technology in healthcare, there are considerations to address. Ghazi emphasizes the importance of patient privacy and data security when introducing connected devices into operating rooms.
But despite these challenges, the medical professionals interviewed are optimistic about the future of mixed-reality technology in healthcare.
“We believe that it’s going to be standard of care in the next years to come, in operating rooms all over the world,” Longhurst predicted.
So as research continues and more data becomes available, Vision Pro and similar technologies may indeed revolutionize surgical practices, improving outcomes for both patients and healthcare providers. That’s a cool early outcome as Apple waits for general consumers to take up the headset, right?
