How can health improve with augmented reality?

In his keynote address at Sensors Expo 2017, Ori Inbar, co-founder and CEO of AugmentedReality.org showed a video from AMA XpertEye and Mending Kids where a doctor discusses potential applications for augmented reality (AR) in healthcare. (Excerpt from “Superpowers to Change the World: How Augmented Reality Helps Advance Humanity.”)

According to Dr. Henry Rice, smart glasses in global health are revolutionizing the diagnosis and treatment of children and adults. Three potential applications of AR to healthcare are: linking surgeons in low resource setting with mentors in other settings, in the operating room and for training.

Linking surgeons in low resource setting with mentors in other settings can help them with diagnosis for thorough surgical planning and all the situations where it is helpful to see the patient.

In the operating room, AR can link a trainee to a mentor so if there are questions during an operation the trainee can get advise about incisions or alternatives to surgical approaches.

Specifically, in a training environment, a mentor can teach a procedure to one or many surgeons in remote settings and transfer knowledge/expertise when direct communication is impossible.

For remote global locations, future implementations of AR could allow local doctors to take charge of even the most advanced procedures and make the current need for doctors in countries that typically travel to those locations for these procedures unnecessary and improve the overall healthcare system efficiency. AR can test technologies, develop platforms to confirm these and transmit knowledge without being there and help the local experts develop their own surgical systems.