An Augmented Reality-Based Approach for Surgical Telementoring in Austere Environments.

Area of Science:

• Medical Technology
• Surgical Innovation
• Remote Healthcare

Background:

• Telementoring enhances surgical treatment for combat trauma in austere environments by connecting experienced remote surgeons with local, less-experienced ones.
• Existing telementoring systems require local surgeons to divert attention from the surgical field, potentially causing delays and errors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate the System for Telementoring with Augmented Reality (STAR).
• To assess STAR's ability to integrate expert annotations directly into the local surgeon's field of view, minimizing attention shifts.

Main Methods:

• STAR utilizes a tablet to display the surgical field, with remote surgeons adding anchored graphical annotations visible to the local surgeon.
• Technical evaluation confirmed robust annotation anchoring despite tablet movement and occlusions.
• A user study compared STAR against conventional telementoring on a surgical simulator task.

Main Results:

• Participants using STAR completed the task with significantly fewer focus shifts compared to the conventional system.
• STAR usage resulted in greater accuracy in marking surgical locations.
• The system demonstrated robust annotation anchoring in technical evaluations.

Conclusions:

• STAR effectively reduces the need for local surgeons to shift attention, enabling continuous work.
• This augmented reality telementoring system enhances surgical precision and efficiency in remote or austere settings.
• STAR represents a significant advancement in improving surgical outcomes through innovative telementoring technology.