9Sep/16Off
Proximie uses augmented reality application as part of telesurgery platform
[Philip Lelyveld comment: this is very low level AR - two cameras and a tablet/laptop with on-screen annotation, but it does address a serious problem in a low-cost, easily implemented manner.]
Approximately two-thirds of the world’s population lacks access to many common, safe surgeries. One software company, Proximie, is using telemedicine to to try to help fill that gap.
Proximie is an an application designed for mobile devices that allows a surgeon in one location to view the operative field and provide instruction in the operating room at a different location. The Proximie platform is based around the concept of having two mobile devices, one in each location, that has a camera for viewing and screen/microphone setup for communicating.
The remote “assisting” surgeon can guide the case with commentary or screen markings, using augmented reality, to direct the operating surgeon. This form of advice can be very helpful to a surgeon that has a basic skill set and equipment to perform a procedure that they may have never seen before or performed on their own. Similarly, even an experienced surgeon that encounters a challenging or different part of a case could seek an intraoperative consult with this software. The technology has already been used to guide surgery performed in the Gaza strip with assisting surgeons in Beirut.
Learn more about Proximie here: http://www.proximie.com/Augmented-Reality/