Doctors could perform life-saving surgeries faster by using virtual reality goggles to ‘warm up’ in advance like athletes.
Experts are working on converting scans of a patient’s body to create virtual model that can be seen through VR goggles.
Surgeons could then use these goggles to simulate their procedure ahead of time.
Scientists believe that using special VR headsets they are developing to do just that could help to cut operating times by six per cent.
Doctors could perform life-saving surgeries faster by using virtual reality goggles to ‘warm up’ in advance like athletes, according to new research (stock)
Scientists believe that using special VR headsets they are developing to do just that could help to cut operating times by six per cent
A team of researchers, including from the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, found that surgeons progressively ‘warm-up’ as they repeat a specific procedure on their operating list throughout the day.
They liken this to the way an athlete’s performance improves across a competition.
Experts now hope to build on the findings by trying to identify a technique or process that would let surgeons undertake their warm up before they perform an operation.
Many surgeons already prepare for surgery by looking at images, video scans and 3D anatomical models.
An earlier study by researchers at the University of Leeds found that surgical trainees who were using a 3D model were better prepared for a surgical procedure.
Going through a VR simulation of a procedure first thing in the morning could lead to even greater improvements, experts say.
Dr Faisal Mushtaq, psychologist at the University of Leeds and co-author of the study, said: ‘Many surgeons have their own routines for preparing for surgery.
Experts are working on converting scans of a patient’s body to create virtual model that can be seen through VR goggles (stock)
‘What we need to try and determine is whether it is possible, or even practical, to design a warm-up routine for surgeons—and if so, for this to be part of standard hospital practice.
‘The use of VR will allow surgeons to practice in a virtual environment and technology will allow these virtual images to be turned into ‘holograms’ that can be overlaid on top of a real tumour in theatre.
‘This will help the surgical team to plan and visualise the processes involved in the procedure they are about to carry out before the first incision.
‘We hope this new technology will help surgeons perform at an elite level in every operation.’
Researchers analysed the outcomes of 255,757 operations carried out a chain of 38 private hospitals run by Spire Healthcare.
They discovered that medical professionals got progressively faster while carrying out 34 out of the 35 most common procedures, which they repeated several times during a day.
The authors of the study say surgeons should look at re-ordering their operating lists, starting their day with the simpler cases and building up to the more difficult ones.
Experts are working on converting MRI and PET scans of a patient’s brain into virtual objects that surgeons are able to see and interact with (stock)
And rather than having a mix of cases, surgeons should try and group similar cases together so they are repeatedly performing the same procedure.
Doing so, according to the researchers, would result in surgeons completing operations more quickly, reducing costly theatre time and potentially improving patient outcomes.
For each operation, the time saved was quite small but scaled up across an average hospital over a year it was estimated to amount to around 24 days of operating theatre time.
The recommendations could free up enough time for an extra 50,000 NHS operations a year, if these saving were reflected across the service, according to reports in The Times.
Similar savings could be made in hospitals around the world who adopt the technique.
The full findings of the study were published in the British Journal of Surgery.