While robotic-assisted surgeries are on the rise, augmented reality technology may disrupt the trend, said Randy Fagin, MD, chief medical officer of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare in an April 30 Healio article.
About 88,000 hip and knee replacements are performed annually at HCA facilities, a growing percentage of which use robotic surgery assistants. Those physicians who use robots to help guide the orthopedic surgeries have more growth and increased revenue compared to those who don't use them. However, augmented reality technology may disrupt the trend of robotics-assisted surgery.
"Augmented reality is, I believe, going to be disruptive to robotics, massively disruptive. It is going to come on slow," said Dr. Fagin. "We're going to hit a logarithmic rise in utilization of augmented reality in hip and knee replacement and it will disrupt the robotic marketplace."
AR is much cheaper than robots to acquire, takes up less space and also has lower service costs.