Augmented reality (AR) presents immense potential and various applications in aiding healthcare providers, particularly in surgical procedures. By superimposing visual representations onto patients' bodies, AR tools can enhance the accuracy and safety of medical treatments. These overlays project the patient's internal anatomy on their body, facilitating less invasive surgeries. Moreover, during surgery, AR technology can provide doctors with 3D visual representations of the patient's anatomy or important cues about allergies, medical history, and vital signs that may impact decision-making. The employment of AR in organ procurement is an innovative use of the technology, which has primarily been used in image-guided surgery. Now, an AR application could aid in organ identification for transplants by enhancing the quality of procurement photos, thus assisting surgical teams in identifying the most suitable organs for patients.

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS, Richmond, VA, USA) is developing an application that leverages AR to provide surgical teams with higher-quality images of donor organs. According to UNOS, challenges related to positioning, lighting, and scale quality often make it hard for surgical teams to evaluate if an organ is suitable for patient transplantation. Users of this tool, which is currently in the proof-of-concept phase, will be able to capture and view standardized images that can be digitally measured and annotated. This development is based on research suggesting that procurement photos might aid in allocating high-risk organs.

“What we’ve found in our research is that a photo of an organ is important for determining the clinical viability of the organ and its anatomy,” said Morgan Stuart, UNOS senior data scientist. 

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