Apple Vision Pro used in surgery — to organise tools

Apple’s Vision Pro has been used in surgery in a medical first in the UK — not by the physician to aid surgery, but by a nurse to track tools.

Apple released the Vision Pro last month for $3,499, immediately raising the question of how the augmented reality headsets could be used for businesses beyond immersive conference calls. One workplace, a private hospital in London, has already found a use for the headset, but it’s not what you might expect.

Software company eXeX said Cromwell Hospital is the first in Europe to use an Apple Vision Pro during surgery — but rather than helping physicians navigate the patient, the headset was used to help a scrub nurse track tools during two spinal operations.

The headset helped the nurse prepare the necessary tools and track the procedure to choose the right tools at the right time, with an image superimposed over the selection of medical paraphrenia. Or, as the company said in a statement, the spatial computing device offered assistance as a “surgical logistics and organisational tool”.

The project has been in the works since last year, with Cromwell Hospital and eXeX working on ways to better optimise non-surgical areas of such procedures using AI and augmented reality. Here, “non-surgical” means things such as inventory control and equipment setup.

The idea is that the technology can offer visual support, such as surgical guides, during an operation to improve accuracy and, hopefully, indirectly benefit patient outcomes.

Related: Does your business need Apple’s spatial computing headsets?

Orlando first

This particular procedure isn’t the first using the Apple Vision Pro or eXeX’s software. Last month, surgeons in Orlando, Florida used the headset and software to support a spinal operation in the same way.

At the time, surgeon Dr Robert Masson explained that the eXeX platform isn’t a medical device but a logistics tool. “It aims to streamline the management of tens of thousands of items, including equipment, tools, technologies, consumables, implants, and surgical products,” he said in a statement.

“As the surgeon, it is invisible to me, except for the extreme calm, quiet and surreal effortlessness of the predictable, undistracted workflow of my team.”

So far, the eXeX platform isn’t a commercial product, the company noted, but its software is already available on Microsoft HoloLens.

Virtual surgery isn’t new

While the Apple Vision Pro is new to the operating theatre, VR and AR headsets have been used by physicians for years, to train students, collaborate remotely and directly aid surgery.

In 2014, British surgeon Shafi Ahmed wore a pair of Google Glasses to live broadcast the removal of a tumour from a patient’s bowel as part of a remote training exercise where students could ask questions of the surgeon as he worked.

In 2017, Royal Free London Hospital turned to augmented reality company Proximie to allow remote experts to offer advice and instructions to surgeons conducting an operation, helping to expand the accessibility of specialists. That same idea, paired with robots, allowed surgeons from the UK and Seattle to collaborate on a complex surgery in 2020.

In 2022, the Royal Devon University Trust turned to AR software to accelerate training post-Covid, while a Scottish surgeon has used VR to explore CT scans to rehearse complicated orthopaedic operations for better patient outcomes. 

In short, Apple Vision Pro isn’t the first headset to be used in the operating theatre. It’s one of many ways that AR headsets are being used in medicine, be it for training, logistics or surgery itself.

But does AR really help patients? Early signs are promising. It appears to be genuinely useful for surgical training, for instance, while another review suggested it could boost accuracy and save time for orthopaedic procedures. One paper focused on spinal treatments said the evidence suggested less pain for patients, as well as more accuracy.

Of course, more research is required — especially using the latest headsets.

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