Help Lightning

Remote expertise through the power of merged reality

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.

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What are the benefits of Help Lightning for surgeons?

In light of the pandemic, and for the foreseeable future, the conventional ways of establishing collaborative partnerships through physical visits are not going to be possible. However, because Help Lightning allows surgeons to collaborate remotely, partnerships can still develop – and more easily than ever before. Help Lightning can be used as a tool for education, mentorship and instruction – as well as for intraoperative case management. It allows both surgical planning and real-time intraoperative advice.

How does it work?

Watch this video to learn how Help Lightning works. This shows use cases in other industries – it’s every bit as useful with surgical applications and can also be used hands-free. All you need to use Help Lightning is your smartphone and an internet connection, though it can also be used with tablets, desktop computers and smart surgical glasses.

Download a beginner’s guide to Help Lightning here: Help Lightning Basic Training

Virtual help in real-time

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

Use your existing devices

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 Software

Be there instantly

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.

Help Lightning
Help Lightning

Using Help Lightning with smart surgical glasses

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.

The Advantage of Remote Expertise

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

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Luc Malemo, MD

Luc Malemo, MD

General Surgeon

HEAL Africa, Fondation Kuno Baherenie, Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo

User

Location information

Hospital address

HEAL Africa, Fondation Kuno Baherenie Rue Lyn Lusi 111 Goma Democratic Republic of the Congo 34 Democratic Republic of the Congo

Hospital type

Public

Hospital description

Regional

Description

We are a 200bed facility faith-based regional hospital. 45% of our surgical patients are under 18. For more than a decade our teams organize outreach surgical campaign in 3-6 other hopitals in the DRC mainly for treatment of clubfeet, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, cleft lip and palate, vesicovaginal fistulas. 

We are the first COSECSA ( and soon PAACS) accredited training site and we currently have 6 Surgical Residents in General Surgery.

What we would like to get out InterSurgeon are equipment for surgical care, resources for training young surgeons and anesthetists in pediatric surgery and when feasible joint surgical care/missions. We see InterSurgeon as a channel to facilitate training of our surgeons in the area of neurosurgeons in terms of short rotations, or whenever possible funding a complete 5-year training in neurosurgeons. In the current situation of the DRC, a neurosurgeon should be able to manage pediatric and adult clients.

Member information

Name

Luc Kalisya Malemo

Member type

Individual independent practitioner

Specialty

General Surgeon

Subspecialties

  • Paediatric

Languages spoken

  • English
  • French
  • Swahili

Professional affiliations / memberships

  • Other

Social profiles

Current and past partnerships

Has current partners or past partnership experience in these countries

  • Australia
  • Uganda
  • United States of America

Our hospital partnered with Cure Hospital of Mbale in Uganda to start the ETV program for treatment of children with hydrocephalus.

Visiting surgeons from Australia have been sending teams of general and plastic surgeons, radiologists, family doctors, emergency doctors, sonographers, radiologist physicians and technicians, anesthetists, pathologists and hospital managers during the last decade and never missed coming even in the middle of limited security. None have been in danger. Usually, they have been coming in September-August for a month.

Visiting surgeons from the USA have been sending teams of general surgeons, family doctors, OR technicians, hospital managers for the last 13 years. 

Many doctors from DRC have also visited Australia and USA for 1.5-2 months, clinical fellowships.

These teams have been able to fund around 20 Congolese young doctors to join MMed Training in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, Canada and all of them ( except one) have returned at HEAL Africa and they are serving and training the next generation of undergraduate and postgraduate MD students. In this regard, we are a training center for 3 local Medical Schools based in Goma. However, up to 5 other main University send their last year MD students to spend their last 12-16 months internship at HEAL Africa before their graduation.