How Technology is Helping Surgeons Collaborate from Across the World

Researchers at Purdue are creating the ultimate collaboration tool — changing the future of medicine in the process.

Navy SEALs and Green Berets are pioneering the ultimate frontier in surgery — augmented reality tools that allow surgeons to collaborate from across the world. “Special Operations Command will benefit hugely from this technology,” says Juan Wachs, a researcher at Purdue University. “This will allow first-aid responders in remote regions to perform life-saving treatments — the impact will be huge.”

Wachs, 47, is head of the Intelligent Systems and Assistive Technologies Lab at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, a laboratory funded by the Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. In the military, 90% of deaths occur before soldiers can reach hospitals. Of those fatalities, 25% are due to thoracic trauma — severe injury to the chest. To reduce these numbers, Wachs is working to find innovative ways to let soldiers use technology to access medical expertise from afar in order to save lives during the “golden hour” — the 60 minutes following an injury in which most fighters perish. “I’m working to provide everyday soldiers with lifesaving skills,” Wachs says. “If we can give better treatment in the field during that golden hour then wounded soldiers will no longer have to be airlifted out to get help from hospitals — the impact will be huge.”

In order to save lives, Wachs is being funded by the military to experiment with revolutionary new technologies in medical collaboration, he and his team creating tools to allow surgeons to work with soldiers in the field. Known as the “Star Project”, Wachs’ work has produced an augmented reality telementoring system in which soldiers in the field can don mixed reality smart glasses, their field of vision then uploaded via satellite to a surgeon watching in real time from a hospital across the world. Assessing the situation through the soldier’s smart glasses, the surgeon can then verbally guide him through the procedure, giving explicit directions while also showing hand techniques and drawing notations — the resulting hologram-like arms and notes steering the soldier through the life-saving work. If the connection is broken, the smart glasses’ AI will kick in, providing guidance based on the visuals and work done so far. “Wearing glasses, the soldier will see the patient and then, superimposed on them, they will see annotations,” Wachs says. “They will see virtual surgical instruments and even hologram hands performing certain movements — all instructional elements in order to complete the surgery.”

So far, the STAR Program is still in the testing stages. Soon, however, Wachs is hoping to achieve approval, the system perhaps launching within the next two years. It is one of several groundbreaking collaborative technologies on the rise in healthcare, hospitals increasingly using tools like Cisco Webex to allow video and file sharing between branches, powering doctors to treat patients anywhere across the globe. Ultimately, Wachs sees the telementoring technology expanding to broader use, expert surgeons in cities using it to save lives in rural areas — mixed reality glasses powering the ultimate house calls. “Telementoring from urban hospitals to rural regions may one day save lives,” he says, “The potential for this technology is huge.”