In 2015, Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram helped perform her first remote live surgery on a bomb victim in Gaza from her home in London. She had no idea that just five years later her technology would be used to enable surgeons to self-isolate and work from home during a pandemic.
As COVID-19 continues to change the way people work, many frontline workers, especially surgeons, do not have the luxury of working from home. Traditionally, they are bound to hospitals, clinics or health care centers.
But several startups have found a solution, allowing surgeons to work and train from home using technology for virtual and augmented reality. Hundreds of hospitals in the US have already begun to adopt the technology.
ImmersiveTouch, a start-up based out of Chicago, uses AR and VR technology to allow surgeons to practice procedures outside of the hospital using Oculus headsets and 3-D scans of patients.
The company has seen its user base grow to almost three times its size in 2020, said ImmersiveTouch president Jay Banerjee.
Banerjee said he expects more than half of the hospitals in the US will be using this technology within the next three years. A report from Allied Market Research finds the use of this technology in healthcare will account for a multi-billion dollar industry by 2026.
Image Credit: ImmersiveTouch
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