Access to this ground-breaking technology is included at no cost with an InterSurgeon clinician membership. Help Lightning allows experienced surgeons to guide and interactively assist others during operations in real-time, anywhere in the world.
Download a beginner’s guide to Help Lightning here: Help Lightning Basic Training
Help Lightning uses Merged Reality to blend two real-time video streams – e.g. that of a remote surgical expert and another surgeon that needs help – into a collaborative environment. This Merged Reality allows the expert to virtually reach out and direct real surgical procedures or training.
Help Lightning runs on your existing mobile devices (iOS, Android) or a web-browser on laptop and desktop computers.
Surgeons can now provide remote assistance as though they’re working side-by-side. They can telestrate, freeze images, use hand gestures, and even add real objects into the merged reality environment.
Help Lightning is easy, fast and intuitive.
Once you’re in a merged reality call with a colleague or customer, simply tap the mode to change how you interact. Choose whether you’re giving or receiving help, and start collaborating in seconds. Help Lightning’s unique Merged Reality can add missing visual cues, gestures, and non-verbal communication methods to any session.
Take Help Lightning to the next level by pairing it with smart glasses. This innovation allows the wearer to benefit from the assistance of AI or a third-party while performing surgery. When used in conjunction with Help Lightning, smart glasses mean that another surgeon can see exactly what you are seeing and what you’re doing – and also have their hands superimposed over your field of view.
There are a number of models available from different manufacturers including VUZIX, Zebra, and RealWear.
Studies show that adding gestures and nonverbal clues substantially improves the speed of understanding. Furthermore, nonverbal cues are 430% more effective than verbal cues and nonverbal cues make Help Lightning’s combination of verbal and nonverbal communication up to 10 times more effective.
Sources: Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, British Journal of Clinical Psychology
Student
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States of America
Medical school information
University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham AL 35205 United States of America
Jenna Alkhatib
Student
