A hospital system in San Diego is exploring how the Apple Vision Pro can be an indispensable tool for not only static data, but also the ability to overlay scans and other health information onto patients who are being examined. California-based Sharp Healthcare is exploring the potential of spatial computing in healthcare. The organization established the Center of Excellence for Spatial Computing to study the usefulness of Apple Vision Pro in managing real-time medical information for doctors,** and specialists.
Sharp partnered with electronic health record system provider Epic to deploy 30 Apple Vision Pro headsets for healthcare workers.
Dan Exley, Sharp's vice president of clinical systems at Sharp, told the San Diego Union Tribune:"We've invested in enough equipment so that we can get doctors, informaticians, software developers, and others to start using it right away. We want them to work with us to figure out the tasks and workflows that work best for them. "
Care managers can visualize statistics for all patients assigned to their supervision**. Doctors can view a patient's comprehensive medical history, x-rays, and body scans, and quickly scan and select items with just a few clicks.
One particularly interesting use case is that the anesthesiologist can view the critical information projected around the patient's head instead of an inconvenient display. In this way, doctors can visually monitor the patient and their vital signs at the same time.
Apple, for its part, also believes that doctors and surgeons will be able to use the new device. Apple executive Mike Rockwell believes surgeons can even use it in surgery.
Dr. Tommy Koron, who is not affiliated with the Center of Excellence for Spatial Computing, tested the Apple Vision Pro and found it to be a useful tool. However, he also mentioned that patients should not expect their doctors to wear headsets in face-to-face meetings anytime soon. He believes that if doctors wear headphones like the Apple Vision Pro when communicating with patients, it may reduce human-to-human communication. But doctors can wear it before meeting with a patient to drill down into the patient's medical records, reducing the focus on in-room computer screens.