Ahmed has experience using the latest technology in the operating room in 2014 when he used Google Glass to remove tumors from a 78-year-old patient.
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How would you like to be able to see yourself in VR 360 after your operation at the hospital?
Dr Ahmed founded a VR startup in late 2015 and planned to expand this first Livestream into training programmes in live and recorded formats. It was also live-streamed to the Medical Realities website.
Along with the help it can provide surgeons going ahead with operations such as this, Ahmed also feels that with technology growing all the time, that it is a cost-effective exercise for medical students to be able to stream the operation live rather than pay thousands to come to the United Kingdom to train. While someday the technology will allow for more detailed filming, this endeavor was more interested in giving those watching an understanding of what it’s like to observe a surgery or get acquainted with an operating room.
Carried out by the leading cancer surgeon Dr. Shafi Ahmed, the entire procedure was watched live by medical students from the hospital and Queen Mary University Hospital though Google Cardboard VR headsets and smartphones, London-based newspaper Evening Standard reported on Friday.
While this interesting concept was supposed to be a “virtual reality” experience, it’s a mere reality, at best – and Dr. Ahmed may want to consider getting a camera that zoomed in better.
The virtual-reality experience was only possible owing to the 360-degree view of the procedure that was made available through provider Medical Realities website. The procedure will be filmed by multiple cameras using cutting-edge virtual reality technology.
An operation is being broadcast for the first time live and in full virtual reality. Anyone with the VRinOR app could watch with just their phones or a VR headset such as the Samsung Gear, Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard.
Ahmed believes virtual reality is the future of medical education. “This is a gamechanger and they can see if anything goes wrong how we react to it”.
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Now anyone can be fully immersed in the Royal London Hospital’s operating theatre – without having to become a patient.
