Technology is finding itself into many aspects of healthcare. This is clearly a positive change providing that we also see associated clinical benefits for our patients. Many of the technologies that are being introduced into surgery are image-based. This allows us to extract and manipulate information that is present on the patient's CT or MRI scan to more accurately plan surgery. We have demonstrated this in several of our peer reviewed publications and have undertaken some of the world's first surgery in this area.

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Virtual Reality (VR) is an image-based technology which allows the user to enter a computer generated world through a specially designed headset. The advantage of using VR in such scenarios is that we can rehearse some of the aspects of surgery which ultimately leads to identifying potential areas of difficulty and thereby reducing error during the actual procedure.

 

Virtual reality allows us to recreate the surgical procedure in a simulated environment and walk-through it so that we are familiar with the patient's anatomy.

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This type of technology is still in experimental form, in that we use it in research studies, but we are hoping that it will find its use in more routine care with within the coming years.

 

For more information there are a number of publications on the subject which you can find through Google. Or, alternatively please ask during your consultation and we will be able to provide further information as to whether or not this is suitable for your particular surgical procedure.

 

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Take care

Manish Chand