We know Apple Watch saves lives, but did you know Apple Vision Pro is helping surgeons save lives? Harry McCracken reports for Fast Company that Apple’s Vision Pro is gaining traction in healthcare, particularly in surgery and medical training.
Surgeons at UC San Diego Health have used the headset to streamline operating room displays, reducing physical strain and improving workflow. Meanwhile, Sharp HealthCare has launched a Spatial Computing Center of Excellence and is hosting a summit with 300 attendees exploring Vision Pro’s potential in surgery, medical education, and beyond.
Apple’s Susan Prescott shared that even Apple has been surprised by how the medical field has adopted Apple Vision Pro. Perhaps even more surprising is what makes Apple Vision Pro effective in the operating room: its price.
Here’s Susan Prescott, Apple VP of dev relations and enterprise marketing, on AVP’s surprising adoption rate in the medical field.
It’s a really exciting and timely moment to bring key industry leaders in healthcare together to not just sit there and listen to a bunch of keynotes, but to connect and talk and share how they’ve used Vision Pro to take best practices and inspiration from peers.
Sometimes enterprises take a little time to adopt technology. This one is even surprising us in the alacrity with which the product is being used and the apps are being built.
UC San Diego Health surgeon Ryan Broderick explains exactly how AVP excels in the operating room:
”For (a) monitor to be in the ideal position for surgery, it really should just be directly in front of your head without having to turn your neck or adjust your body,” explains Dr. Broderick. “But often in laparoscopy, you have to adjust your body, turn your neck, and be in uncomfortable positions. And with repeated use like that, it can lead to tight muscles, neck injury, back injury.”
In addition to providing real-time passthrough for seeing your environment, Apple Vision Pro allows you to be surrounded by virtual windows that you position and resize directly in front of you.
Apple Vision Pro is powered by the company’s M2 chip found in Macs and iPads. Meanwhile, Apple’s custom R1 chip is responsible for making sense of all the sensors on Apple Vision Pro. Prescott describes how the R1 is helping surgeons actually save lives.
“We have the R1 chip that’s taking the feedback from the sensors and processing eight times faster than the human eye can blink,” says Prescott. “That’s great for anti-nausea, to help make sure people don’t feel unwell. But it’s also great as feeds are coming in with live, literally lifesaving, information.”
Because Apple Vision Pro provides such high fidelity passthrough, surgeons are able to rely on the headset for significant ergonomic improvements:
Dr. Broderick’s team got its hands on a loaner Vision Pro and worked with UC San Diego Health chief clinical and innovation officer Dr. Christopher Longhust to assemble a system capable of streaming video feeds and overlaying them on the live view of a surgery in progress, greatly reducing the need to crane necks.
In short order, the idea became a trial that involved real patients and is currently undergoing peer review. “We’ve done over 50 cases and have had great success thus far,” says Dr. Broderick.
But back to the Apple Vision Pro’s $3500+ price. In the piece, Susan Prescott provides a particularly interesting remark about the cost of AVP:
“Obviously, it’s a V1 product, and the price, for now, is what the price is,” acknowledges Prescott.
While that line could be dissected and analyzed for as long as it takes to release Apple Vision Air, let’s return to the reason Apple Vision Pro is such a value in the operating room. Tommy Korn, an ophthalmologist with Sharp HealthCare, tells Fast Company that the monitors used for the operating room run $20,000 each.
Apple Vision Pro as both a source of ergonomic relief and a value in the operating room? That’s certainly not the typical narrative that follows Apple Vision Pro.
Read Harry McCracken’s piece in full at Fast Company. Check out my Apple Vision Pro gratitude story from October for another perspective.
Featured image via Fast Company, courtesy of Sharp HealthCare.
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