The Augmented, Virtual, Human-Machine Future of Surgery Is Here

Dr. Stephen Murphy had conducted countless hip replacement operations before, but this one was different. In this one, he and his team could see a 3D hologram overlaid on the patient -- a digital model of the patient's body that existed directly in his line of vision. The surgical team had a form of X-ray vision with augmented reality. "We had done a lot of testing on real human specimens, so we knew what it was going to look like, but to see it in a live patient for the first time was just unbelievable," Murphy said in an interview with Freethink. "It feels to the surgeon as if she has been transported inside of the patient."