TrueVision Brings an Avatar-like 3D Experience into the OR

The other day your Medgadget editor spent a few hours observing Ophthalmologic surgeries in high definition 3D care of a demo by TrueVision Systems, an angel only funded company out of Santa Barbara, CA that specializes in bringing 3D into the operating room. The set up, at least initially, is most useful for instructional purposes – allowing residents and students to better observe microscopic surgery at medical schools or teaching hospitals. Those of us watching in the OR simply put on a pair of polarized 3D glasses (the same kind you used to live the luminescent life of a Navi in Avatar), and were treated to a huge 3D eye popping out of the 46″ screen in exquisite detail. The operating room had the old observation technology, a tiny, 2D display right near the 3D flat panel and the quality difference made the 2D version seem laughable. It was beautiful.
Some surgeons who operate under the microscope are even starting to use TrueVision as their primary visualization device instead of the microscope. Also, the TrueVision system can integrate into current guidance technologies to bring all of the surgical visual data together onto one screen.
From the press release on guidance integration:

For the first time ever, surgeons can connect other operating room devices into one unified visualization system. TrueVision seamlessly integrates into the multi-window 3D 1080p display the various imaging modalities and guidance from other medical devices such as Alcon INFINITI, Medtronic Stealth Station, and Intuitive Surgical’s DaVinci robot. This allows the surgeon and staff to focus on one screen in the OR to view data and the surgical field of view at the same time as opposed to looking at different displays for each device.

Here’s a TrueVision video of the system used during surgery: