In Metaverse, the Doctor is 900 Kilometers Away

Surgery in the Metaverse. For the first time, breast cancer surgery was performed remotely. A doctor was at the scene, with the patient. The other is in another country 900 kilometers away.

In the breast Department of the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, surgeon Dr Pedro Gouveia is in the operating room. Dr Rogelio Andrés-Luna, a Spaniard, supervises and directs at the University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Due to the existence of Metaverse, the operation is like two surgeons in the same room. Dr Gouveia wears hybrid reality goggles — hololens 2. He can not only see the patient in front of him. Moreover, he can also read the information projected on the inner lens of the goggles. Like the terminator, but his job is to save lives, not destroy them.

Dr Gouveia is a pioneer in Metaspace surgery. He has been operating on breast cancer for some time with hololens goggles. While working at the champalimaud foundation, he developed a digital, non-invasive method that allows surgeons to locate a tumor as if the surrounding breast tissue were invisible.

It’s 900 kilometers from Dr. Andres Andres. In fact, he was on the stage of the general assembly of the Spanish Association of breast surgeons. Together with Dr Gouveia, he demonstrated the latest method of remote surgical supervision.

All Dr Andr é s-luna needs is a laptop. It connects to Dr Gouveia’s hololens via a private 5g network using German software. Despite the distance between the two doctors, they reported that everything was going well, just as the supervising surgeon stood next to the surgeon performing the operation.

Delay

What happens if the information lags behind? How do surgeons synchronize their actions when there is a few seconds between what one person does and what another person sees?

By not using 4G or WiFi technology. They used 5g. “5g smashes the delay and reduces it to a few milliseconds. That’s why it’s so critical in our experiment,” Dr. Gouveia said, “We conducted the world’s first field experiment during breast cancer surgery, using what we call ‘remote invigilation’.”

Dr Gouveia believes that remote invigilation may become a major feature of the operating room in the future. 5g makes remote invigilation an absolute reality. Dr Andr é s-luna said: “I gave instructions to my apprentice. I was able to point out where he needed to be particularly careful and show him images or videos. We have been in audio-visual contact.”.

Doctors rely on large telephone companies to make the operation successful. Altice, Portugal, in champalimaud foundation. Telef ó Nica in Spain. The success of the operation is a proof of concept, Dr. Gouveia said. It will change the way of operation in the future. Its potential for supervising new surgeons is incredible.

Surgery in Metaverse

At present, once young surgeons have completed their training, they will make their surgical debut without any supervision, Dr. Gouveia said. This is especially true in remote areas or countries. Sometimes, they may be the only person qualified for surgery.

“Their operation can be recorded and then evaluated, but during the operation, they can only rely on themselves and need help.” Dr Gouveia said the technology could be used for surgical students to participate in surgery remotely. Just like they’re in the room.

“Through remote guidance / invigilation, the breakthrough brought by immersive technology has opened a new era: the use of so-called ‘Metaverse’ in graduate medical education. Metaverse is defined as Internet access through enhanced, virtual, hybrid and / or extended reality through helmets, and has been considered as the next generation of mobile computing platform”.