Mixed-reality Holographic Screens as the Replacement of Monitors in the Endoscopy Suite: a Multicenter Study

In the medical field, many technologies have emerged to aid healthcare providers during training, communication, and management of patients. The area of spatial computing is becoming part of the immersive developing technology. The main components of spatial computing are augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR, VR, and MR, respectively).

VR is a human-computer interface that simulates a realistic environment, while AR superimpose elements of VR in a real-world environment. AR is an enhanced version of the real-world achieved through sensory information delivered via technology. Moreover, the combination of both is known as MR. Mixed reality is an interactive, real-time processed, three-dimension registered technology.

In medicine, published data has broadly demonstrated the utility and advantages of AR and VR in many fields like neurosurgery, cardiology, maxillofacial, hepatobiliary, and orthopedics. However, information about MR for health purposes is scarce.

Based on the above, it is necessary to develop studies to assess the utility of MR in other procedural medical fields like gastroenterology. Some of the proposed advantages of MR in gastroenterology, mainly during endoscopic procedures, are the 3D space guidance and gesture operation (translation and rotation) without touching the object, the increase in situational awareness by reduction of real-world and content refocusing, the remote assistance during procedures, and the replacement/reduction of the use of monitors during the procedures.

To evaluate the advantages and added value of MR in gastroenterology, the researchers proposed a multicenter trial in the endoscopic units by using a built developed application (HXtendTM, mdconsgroup, Guayaquil, Ecuador) for the HoloLens2TM (Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA) holographic device.