Efficient communication and collaboration are essential in the operating room for successful and safe surgery. While many technologies are improving various aspects of surgery, communication between attending surgeons, residents, and surgical teams is still limited to verbal interactions that are prone to misunderstandings. Novel modes of communication can increase speed and accuracy, and transform operating rooms. A mixed reality (MR) based gaze sharing application on Microsoft HoloLens 2 headset that can help expert surgeons indicate specific regions, communicate with decreased verbal effort, and guide novices throughout an operation is presented. The utility of the application is tested with a user study of endoscopic kidney stone localization completed by urology experts and novice surgeons. Improvement is observed in the NASA task load index surveys (up to 25.23%), in the success rate of the task (6.98% increase in localized stone percentage), and in gaze analyses (up to 31.99%). The proposed application shows promise in both operating room applications and surgical training tasks.
Keywords: augmented reality; biomedical communication; gaze tracking.
© 2023 The Authors. Healthcare Technology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.