Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Stanford Medicine Utilizes Augmented Reality for Real-Time Surgical Data Visualization

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 A team of Stanford Medicine doctors and biomedical engineers are among the many first to integrate a brand new augmented reality tool into surgical practice. The technology, Apple Vision Pro, is a headset that gives a type of human-computer interaction – it allows its wearer to navigate their surroundings using real-time visual data together with virtual elements.

“The novel use of augmented reality within the operating room exemplifies Stanford Medicine’s mission of serving patients in a digitally driven, human-centered care environment,” said Lloyd Minor, dean of the School of Medicine and vp of medical affairs at Stanford University. “Our health system has long stood on the vanguard for the usage of digital technologies in medicine, and I’m proud that through initiatives like RAISE Health, we also define the protected, responsible and equitable use of those innovations.” 

A cardiologist used the technology, with the patient’s informed consent, to successfully perform an ablation procedure this week at Stanford Hospital to treat atrial fibrillation.

“At Stanford Health Care, we have designed our interventional platform and operating rooms to be ready for the newest innovations. Spatial computer vision has tremendous potential to reinforce the surgical environment,” said David Entwistle, president and CEO of Stanford Health Care. “We’re excited to prepared the ground in exploring how this technology can best support our surgical teams and augment the exceptional care they supply our patients.”

Augmented reality is making waves as an revolutionary mode of entertainment, education and virtual multitasking – one can, as an illustration, use the goggles to observe movies, chat with faraway friends, surf the net or engage in a bunch of other digital content. But physicians and tech innovators at Stanford Medicine wondered if augmented reality, powered by spatial computing technology, might be a boon within the operating room.

“We have incredible biomedical engineering and health information technology teams that took a novel off-the-shelf technology and adapted it to check recent big ideas,” said Michael Pfeffer, MD, Stanford Health Care’s chief information officer. “Our goal is to be on the innovative of learning and understanding the potential of this emerging technology in health care.”

A physician can view as much as eight screens without delay with the augmented reality system.
Fred Hizal

“Biomedical engineering represents the mixing of technology and medicine at the purpose of care,” said Adam Alkhato, administrative director for biomedical engineering at Stanford Medicine’s Technology and Digital Solutions. “We value developing strong relationships with our medical service lines inside Stanford Medicine to explore, advance and deploy the newest health technology. This is an important example of that collaboration.”

A seamless stream on a single screen

During the procedure, Alexander Perino, MD, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Stanford Health Care, performed an ablation, a typical procedure that treats heart arrythmias, which cause rapid or irregular heart rates. During an ablation, Perino typically looks at a wide range of monitors, including one which shows a real-time, anatomically accurate representation of the patient’s heart and the equipment he uses to treat areas of the guts causing arrhythmias. Other monitors show critical information needed to perform the procedure, akin to ultrasound images, X-rays and the patient’s vital signs.

“There may be as much as eight screens that depict distinct real-time data, with insufficient real estate in an operating room for these screens to be conveniently positioned and the info on them reviewed,” Perino said. “Current systems don’t allow for surgeons and proceduralists to interact with the info directly, requiring staff members to help with data manipulation and processing, which may be inefficient.”

With the spatial computing headset, which receives secured real-time data from a workstation and displays it, Perino is capable of manipulate the virtual monitors quickly and without help. These monitors contain all the info needed to perform the procedure. What’s more, while wearing the headset, Perino can see the patient and operating room as he normally would.

The headset tracks his eye movements, interpreting where his attention is concentrated. With a pinch of his fingers or quick hand movement, he can zoom in on various data streams or reorganize the screens.

“I can independently move the virtual monitors to a more ergonomic position, then make it twice as big and easier to see,” Perino said.

An augmented future

During the procedure, the surgical team also had conventional monitors displaying what Perino was seeing through the headset. “Right now, we’re not taking away anything that we normally use; we’re just adding a brand new layer. Our current goal is to experience the output of the brand new technology and be sure that it’s performing in addition to, if not higher than, the setup we currently have.”

Whether and the way the technology will probably be harnessed in surgical suites more broadly is yet to be determined. But Perino and others are intrigued by their first successful use – and he and others are already pondering up other uses for the spatial computing system, including for educational and training purposes, in addition to more sophisticated uses within the operating room.

“There’s lots to learn,” Perino said. “For now, we hope that this primary demonstration will help establish the tool as something surgeons and proceduralists can use to cut back barriers to quickly and simply review and manipulate intraprocedural data, increasing efficiency and clinician enjoyment. Ultimately, translating these improvements might help our patients.”

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