Healthcare - Enable expert surgeons to assist remotely

Enable expert surgeons to assist remotely

With HoloLens and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, medical experts can assist doctors and surgeons remotely. This significantly reduces travel time, medical material waste and infection risks due to Covid-19.

As Remote Assist is a product from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Suite, the setup and configuration is very easy. And if you’re used to working with Microsoft Teams, you will have this app figured out in no time since the app basically uses Microsoft Teams – but with an extra special toolkit.

With Remote Assist the remote expert is able to follow along (as if he were looking through the eyes of the person operating) and guide the surgeon where needed. You can leverage the following functionalities:

Remote viewing

The call between the remote expert and the doctor is established through Microsoft Teams. The remote expert can follow along on his pc, laptop, tablet or phone using the default Microsoft Teams app. The operating doctor can also bring the remote expert into view.

Bring valuable information into view

The remote expert can send images and pdf documents to the operating doctor. Think of patient scans or other supporting information related to the procedure. The doctor can then place these documents wherever he wants within his field of view, make them bigger or smaller, and annotate them if needed.

Annotate

Both the remote expert and the operating doctor can make annotations to highlight what they’re talking about, which makes it easier and more efficient to collaborate. Let’s say the expert tells the surgeon where the incision should be made, he can actually place an arrow or draw a line at the exact spot on the patient’s body.

Bring other apps into view

During the call, the operating doctor can open other application that are available on the HoloLens. Think of a holographic step-by-step visualization of the procedure that the doctor is performing. The remote expert can follow along and give guidance.

Getting started with Remote Assist

Getting started with Microsoft Remote Assist is pretty easy. As remote expert you need a (standard) Microsoft Teams license. So if you’re already in the Microsoft ecosystem within your company, you’re good to go. As operating doctor, you need a HoloLens 2 with a Remote Assist license. It’s as easy as that!

Pricing

Every remote expert needs a standard Microsoft Teams License. If they don’t have this license yet, the cheapest option is to get a Microsoft 365 Business Basic license (€4,20 per user per month).

As operating doctor you need to buy or rent a HoloLens 2 device.

Besides the HoloLens device, you also need a Dynamics 365 Remote Assist license (€54,80 per user per month).

To get a complete, more structured overview, you can download our Pricing Sheet.