North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust's Trauma and Orthopaedic Department uses head-mounted wearables to let students observe live surgery from the surgeon's point of view. The deployment aims to expand access to operating-theatre teaching and create a safer training environment, according to RealWear's October 11, 2023 press release.
The surgeon wears a RealWear Navigator 500 running Microsoft Teams while performing the procedure. Students watch and ask questions during the surgery, with the surgeon responding through the device's built-in speakers and microphone.
In the October 2023 report, Jean Angus, the Trust's Head of Nursing Education, said the deployment had accommodated students from 11 disciplines and 6 universities. Consultant in trauma and orthopaedics Nick Cooke reported that the wearables enabled more people to gain operating-theatre experience in a single day than the department typically accommodated in an entire year; this was his account of expanded teaching capacity.
