Mixed Reality for Anaesthesia Care

The challenge

An anaesthetist has to keep track of both the patient and a great deal of important medical information at the same time.

With conventional monitors that means the eyes must leave the patient again and again to read a screen. The question the project asked was simple: can the right information be presented in a way that lets the clinician keep eye contact with the patient?

The solution

A prototype was built for Microsoft HoloLens, presenting relevant patient information and vital signs in the clinician’s field of view.

The work was as much about care as about technology: understanding the clinical workflow, identifying which information is actually worth showing – and which would simply be in the way – and then designing both the technical solution and the visualisation.

The prototype was then evaluated in a clinical research environment together with healthcare staff.

The result

The project showed concretely how mixed reality can be used in a care environment, and produced findings grounded in real clinical evaluation rather than assumptions.

Just as important as the technology were the insights about what should not be shown – in an operating environment, too much information is a problem in itself.

My role

I contributed as solution architect, working alongside the clinical research team:

• Technical solution design
• Understanding the clinical workflow
• Data integration
• Mixed reality visualisation
• Prototype development