Having gained UKCA and CE mark certification, surgical health tech startup HoloCare is launching into five UK and EU hospitals, helping surgeons to carry out operations more efficiently and accurately.

In the UK, the surgical hologram technology will be deployed at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The software creates interactive 3D holograms of individual patient’s organs, enabling surgeons to precisely plan and personalise surgeries to the patient’s unique anatomy.

By delivering improved spatial awareness ahead of operations, surgeons can perform more efficiently and accurately which will help improve waiting time, patient surgery outcomes and improve clinician wellbeing.

The mixed reality and AI-powered platform will initially be used to improve the quality of planning for complex liver resections – where part of the liver tissue is removed. This type of surgery is commonly used in the treatment of liver cancer and bowel cancer.

Professor Peter Lodge, consultant surgeon at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, said: “We fully expect this exciting new advance to make decision-making for liver surgery and other liver cancer therapies easier, more accurate and faster. We are looking forward to helping HoloCare take liver radiology forward in a way we have not thought is possible until recently. We can see wide implications for all types of liver surgery and interventions, saving time and money in patient care.”

Lodge is set to chair a new clinical advisory board for HoloCare – an important part of clinical regulation.

The results of the company’s clinical research, which it carried out in collaboration with Oslo University Hospital, Norway to assess the outcomes of its technology in a clinical setting, is to be published soon and forms part of its CE mark approval.

Alison Sundset, CEO of HoloCare, said: “This CE Mark is an important moment for HoloCare, signalling confidence (as well as compliance) in our solution and setting the scene for an exciting next chapter, as we look to scale across Europe – and ultimately beyond!”

HoloCare is planning to launch in a further ten European hospitals in 2024. Here in the UK, the team at Leeds will soon commence training with the new technology and reporting back on the potential impact on patient care as part of a new evaluation.

At the end of 2022, GigXR also advanced its hyper-immersive learning tools with the release of Anima Res’ Insight Series – structurally accurate holograms of heart, lungs and kidneys to help improve anatomy learning.