Program is uniting Surgeons around the world to bridge the global surgical doctor deficit
a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technology and products, in collaboration with Ohana One, a global surgical training nonprofit organization whose mission is to cultivate high-quality surgical and anesthesia programs in developing areas around the world today, announced that the surgical aid and education virtual surgical sight smart glasses program for the NGO community is now live in 35 countries worldwide.
The Surgical Sight program, which was formally launched in October 2020 by Ohana One, utilizes Vuzix Smart Glasses and Help Lightning software to connect surgical mentors in developed areas with surgeons in developing areas around the globe to create training relationships within surgery. As of June 2021, 835 calls have been placed over Vuzix Smart Glasses which were used to connect more than 100 surgeons across five specialty areas including neurosurgeons, general and colorectal surgeons, adult and pediatric orthopedic surgeons, and plastic and reconstructive surgeons. The first cohort consisted of 50 surgical teams consisting of mentor and mentee pairs that spanned across 5 continents and 35 developing countries. The goal is to have the program grow to 1,000 mentor/mentee pairs.
The surgical mentee can share his or her surgical field directly with the mentor, and the mentor sees what the mentee is seeing live in real-time using the specialized Help Lightning smart glasses software. This technology can take pictures of the live feed, record videos, freeze the image and subsequently write on top of the captured image, and mentors can use their hands to point out areas that need special attention or direction, all as if the mentor was directly operating with the mentee in live time. This enhances the training relationship between the mentor and mentee, helping the mentee to further develop their surgical skills. The smart glasses and software create an environment where the mentor can be available in live time during the surgery, preoperative planning, and post-operative monitoring.
„The main purpose of global surgery is training activities between the mentors and mentees. Because of many reasons from the different regions, time, local laws, restriction from transportation or COVID pandemic, the experts cannot come and teach us directly. The Vuzix Smart Glasses are becoming an important channel for communication. We can receive help from our mentors remotely. The glasses work similar to a smart camera with video call and virtual reality that are suitable in the operating room. We really like using these devices to improve the quality of our global surgical programs,“ says Dr. Can from InterSurgeon, an Ohana One partner, Chief of Neurosurgical Department, Children’s Hospital 2, Vietnam.
„We are very pleased to work together with Ohana One and their growing list of participating surgical teams around the globe to support their virtual Surgical Sight smart glasses program in their mission to connect 1,000 mentor/mentee pairs,“ said Paul Travers, President and CEO of Vuzix.
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