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300 doctors attended a summit on Apple Vision Pro's applications in surgery

Apple Vision Pro helping surgeons in the operating room

Apple Vision Pro's price and weight are of no concern to doctors in the operating room, as the spatial computing platform helps replace expensive monitors and stiff necks.

Sharp HealthCare purchased 30 Apple Vision Pros and started a Spatial Computing Center of Excellence in February 2024. One year later, they are hosting a summit to share what doctors have learned about using the headset in healthcare.

According to a report from Fast Company, surgeons everywhere are talking about Apple Vision Pro and how it's able to make a difference in the operating room. In the year since it debuted, apps have been developed to help with education, data presentation, and more.

Sharp partnered with Zeiss to make an app that lets ophthalmologists view cataract surgery videos, and Stryker released an app for reviewing hip and knee surgery plans in 3D. There's even an app by Elsevier that lets users view detailed models of the human heart.

Doctors were surprised by the fidelity of Apple Vision Pro, not to mention the usefulness of overlaying information during a surgery. They're also excited by the prospect of helping with education through modeling and unique ways of viewing data.

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As for the $3,500 price, the doctors say it pales in comparison to the $20,000 monitors used in the operating room. And the price coming down will only help drive adoption.

"Obviously, it's a V1 product, and the price, for now, is what the price is," acknowledges Susan Prescott, VP of worldwide developer relations. She said Apple Vision Pro lets doctors "do something that wasn't possible before that just improves patient outcomes, which at the end of the day is an important part of the success of a healthcare organization."

The weight isn't an issue either, as any discomfort felt is nothing compared to the pain caused by the irregular postures required to view monitors in an operating room.

UCSD Health's Dr. Broderick says that the device fades into the background during use. "It's pretty much not noticeable when you're in the middle of the operation," he shared, "the learning curve is near zero."

The Sharp HealthCare summit enables 300 doctors from 10 countries around the world to share how they've implemented Apple Vision Pro in their workflows. Adoption by doctors has been quite surprising, as enterprise, especially the medical field, tend to be quite slow at bringing new technologies into their work.

It's still early days for Apple's venture into spatial computing. New and innovative ways of implementing Apple Vision Pro into various enterprise environments will continue to arrive in coming months and years.



8 Comments

Pema 3 Years · 212 comments

Finally we are getting somewhere. Apple is at last realising that as consumer product it is doomed. But with a pro application it makes perfect sense. There is a huge potential in every segment of medicine, industry, manufacturing, education, government, military, aviation etc. etc. where the Vision Pro price wise wouldn't faze anyone and the application will bring huge productivity. 
The XR consumer segment is a whole different beast. Someone/or some team at Apple positioned this device totally and completely wrong. Apple is so used to selling to consumers that that is where it was pitched. But a year later it is just collecting bad press and dust. 
Hopefully in 2025/2026 we will see a resurgence of the XR set matched to a consumer application and at a consumer price point. 

0 Likes · 3 Dislikes
apple4thewin 4 Years · 376 comments

Pema said:
Finally we are getting somewhere. Apple is at last realising that as consumer product it is doomed. But with a pro application it makes perfect sense. There is a huge potential in every segment of medicine, industry, manufacturing, education, government, military, aviation etc. etc. where the Vision Pro price wise wouldn't faze anyone and the application will bring huge productivity. 
The XR consumer segment is a whole different beast. Someone/or some team at Apple positioned this device totally and completely wrong. Apple is so used to selling to consumers that that is where it was pitched. But a year later it is just collecting bad press and dust. 
Hopefully in 2025/2026 we will see a resurgence of the XR set matched to a consumer application and at a consumer price point. 

It’s a prosumer, enterprise, and developer product. The Vision Pro wasn’t designed for the average consumer since the average consumer would not be able to afford this device. The V2 or Air equivalent will be the more consumer-friendly device in terms of pricing.

4 Likes · 0 Dislikes
ssfe11 1 Year · 118 comments

Great news! 300 doctors. Wow. AVP is really taking off in the healthcare industry

2 Likes · 3 Dislikes
hmlongco 10 Years · 608 comments

ssfe11 said:
Great news! 300 doctors. Wow. AVP is really taking off in the healthcare industry

That's not the number of people using it. That's the number of people who thought it was worthwhile spending money to travel to a summit to discuss it and its implications.

3 Likes · 0 Dislikes
s.metcalf 22 Years · 968 comments

I’m sure the free lunch was nice.  If I know doctors they love free stuff!

1 Like · 0 Dislikes