If you’ve been a regular reader of VRFocus over the last year you might be familiar with Dr Shafi Ahmed based at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, UK. Dr Ahmed helped setup Medical Realities, a healthcare company that aims to change the future of medical training through virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). It’s now been announced that Dr Ahmed will be performing a live-streamed operation in VR this week.
The operation on a patient with colon cancer at The Royal London Hospital, is for medical students to learn about the surgery first hand by watching remotely. But any one else who is interested in viewing the procedure can do.
Dr Shafi Ahmed, Cancer Surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust and Co-founder of Medical Realities said: “I am honoured that this patient has given permission for his experience to provide this unparalleled learning opportunity. As a champion of new technology in medicine, I believe that virtual and augmented reality can revolutionise surgical education and training, particularly for developing countries that don’t have the resources and facilities of NHS hospitals. I am also grateful to Mativision for making this difficult process possible from a technology perspective. I am very excited about the expansion of this program to bring more medical learning to the world.”
It’ll be taking place on 14th April at 1pm GMT, and to viewing the operation will require downloading the VRinOR app for Android or iOS devices in conjunction with a Google Cardboard head-mounted display (HMD). Samsung Gear VR owners can also watch the operation by searching for the app on the Oculus Store.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of the latest medical use of VR as further developments are announced.
