FAC U LT Y IN ACT ION
AUGMENTING REALITY SMHS Department of Surgery faculty and residents test out AR technology in a simulated surgery.
A .R . IN
THE O.R.
“It’s not like changing the alternator in your
Thanks to a partnership between the
Not quite virtual reality, the AR concept
car where you can easily reference the
UND’s School of Medicine & Health
uses enhanced glasses that allow for
repair manual or a technical read-out in the
Sciences (SMHS) Department of Surgery
supplemental images or videos to overlay
moment,” explained Dr. Stefan Johnson
and the School of Electrical Engineering
what the physician sees in the operating
of teaching surgery to medical students
and Computer Sciences (SEECS) within
room (OR). These images or videos can be
and residents. “We’re still teaching with
the UND College of Engineering and
anything, Johnson said, from radiological
a mentor and pointing out things with a
Mines, though, this age-old method of
images like X-rays or CT scans to patients’
forceps or surgical instrument and saying
surgical education is getting an update.
vital signs, instructional videos, and even
‘cut here’ or ‘watch me do this and then you repeat the maneuver.’”
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UND’s departments of surgery and computer science team up to explore augmented reality technology in the operating room.
Over the past eighteen months, faculty from the two UND teams have been helping the
pages from the surgery textbook, all passed in front of surgeons’ field of vision.
Laparoscopy and robotics notwithstanding,
Surgery Residency Program that Johnson
“So, in the old days, residents would
this is how surgical training has been done
directs experiment with augmented reality
essentially practice on cadavers and
for centuries, said Johnson.
(AR) technology in the surgical suite.
patients—they didn’t have much choice,”
North Dakota Medicine Fall 2021
