Visibility, spectator value and the unlimited possibilities of HoloLens

These three characteristics most closely describe what Microsoft HoloLens technology is all about. If you work in pharmaceutics, science or medicine, one way or another you will have already encountered a virtual reality. We want to draw your attention to our developments in the realm of mixed reality.

Do not confuse these two concepts, although it probably can’t be helped: for a long time mixed reality developed as a part of virtual reality, until it obtained an alternative and competition in the market of technical opportunities.

What is the uniqueness of mixed reality in general and HoloLens technologies in particular?

Spectator value and health promotion

Imagine yourself inside a cell of the human body. How will the body respond to such an invasion? With the assistance of medical animators, developers of mixed reality will be able to give the user not only a sense of presence, but also an unforgettable experience. Thanks to the interactivity of this technology, you can count on not only spectacular entertainment, but also interaction with the visual series, such as an antibody produced by plasma cells in response to intrusion from outside. Impressive range of opportunities to demonstrate the mechanism of action of a drug, isn’t it?

However, the most obvious application of such interactivity seems to be the development of training programmes. It's not just about increasing the level of medical education of the average user, although therapists will probably agree: it's better to show the smoker once how this habit affects the lungs than to repeat the same thing year after year, looking at the results of his medical examination.

Although using HoloLens to promote healthy lifestyle is undoubtedly perspective, the training of medical personnel looks much more ambitious in the framework of this technology popularization.

The best medical schools of the world (Stanford, Harvard, Duke University, John Hopkins, Imperial College of London) are already interested in learning simulators that allow students to prepare for fifty surgical operations, and this is not the limit!

"Surgical" accuracy in comparison with other possibilities

In the Brazilian Instituto de Ortopedia e Traumatologia de Jaraguá do Sul, glasses of mixed reality are used to simplify the tasks facing the spinal surgeon. Visualization of a predetermined trajectory of screw placement for fixation of the spine makes it more accurate to place them in the process of spine arthrodesis and, as a result, facilitates deformation correction processes, treatment of fractures and bone cancer.

Due to the fact that the introduction of implants can cause serious complications of the corresponding procedures, for example, nerve damage and weakening of the implant, the use of HoloLens is rather difficult to overestimate. Nowadays, most spinal surgeons around the world are guided solely by anatomical guidelines and an intraoperative X-ray, when it comes to their work with implants. Specialists of countries with a high standard of living also use computerized tomography, but in Brazil this is not the option.

At the same time, intraoperative use of HoloLens gives surgeons an opportunity to see the picture of the disease as a whole, visualizing the information necessary for working with implants in 3D.

Visibility facilitates a deeper understanding

Developed by specialists from Berlin in the form of a platform, holographic navigation ensured the success of HoloLens in the field of minimally invasive operations in general and in spinal surgery in particular. This gave impetus to developments in the field of determining the exact location of tumors using glasses of mixed reality. In addition, the detailed medical data available through this technology allows the tumor to be treated with an effective and timely method.  

After scanning the patient, the doctor can upload images to the "cloud" and access them using the computer integrated in the mixed reality glasses. Surgeons usually work on patients after studying the scan on a stationary device. To make incisions, they must rely on the corresponding two-dimensional images. During the operation, they often have to consult the scans and return from the patient to the computer.

However, while using HoloLens 3D full-body scanning holograms can be applied to the patient so that the surgeon can fully visualize the desired fragment before or during the operation.

As a result of this freedom from the two-dimensional plane of the monitor a fundamentally new approach to the HoloLens usage includes an ultrasonic simulator of mixed reality. Thanks to the efforts of French developers that is exactly how HoloLens show an anatomical model that can be enlarged, rotated or correlated with the patient's body on the operating table to see the interconnection of all structures.

Also, glasses of mixed reality promise to be the most popular and demanded in aesthetic surgery. Thus, in New York HoloLens technology is predictably used to reduce patient anxiety and achieve better results.

3D modelling of the results helps the patient and the surgeon to achieve greater mutual understanding while comparing expectations with a reality. Corrected in this way, the surgeon's work is doomed to the success and growth of the number of customers satisfied with the service. In addition, this subject matter in discussions and work saves the surgeon up to 20% of the time spent, both on the operation itself and on the preoperative preparatory period preceding the surgical intervention.

Are you a trend trader?

At this stage, developers are working on the implementation of glasses of mixed reality in the field of eye surgery. The advantages of HoloLens technology described in this article were evaluated not only in Brazil, France, Germany and the USA, but in Norway and Japan as well. We also work amongst a few developers in this direction.

Our team is always ready for cooperation: whether it is a mixed or virtual reality, medical illustration or animation we are always in step with the times and open to new projects. However, we would prevaricate, if we did not mention that our developers are on their mettle, when it comes to HoloLens.

Speaking of the limitless possibilities of glasses of mixed reality, we literally bear in mind their extensive application in medicine and related fields, for instance, in optimizing the operational space: such a development already exists. 3D modelling makes it possible to ensure that all the equipment needed for manipulation is at the surgeon's fingertips, within their reach, without hindering an access to the operating surface. If you have any other ideas that can make our world a better place with the help of HoloLens, please leave your comment or use our contacts to reach us.