Israel is a blessing to the nations in so many ways, but one of the ways the “innovation nation” is helping others is through their technological advancements in the field of medicine.
This week, a hospital in Jerusalem became the first in the world to perform a complex spine surgery utilising augmented reality (AR) combined with robotic technology.
The Jewish News reports:
Dr. Cezar J. Mizrahi at Shaare Zedek Medical Centre told Jewish News that he decided to apply AR, which is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content, with robotic technology when a 25-year-old patient was admitted with a very complex spine injury.
The patient, which was at risk of paralysis and other severe neurological damage, was the “perfect case”, Dr. Mizrahi said.
“This kind of of injury would be extremely complicated to treat without the technology we used. I had absolutely no view so I fully trusted AR and robotics,” Dr. Mizrahi said.
The combination of AR and robotics allowed Dr. Mizrahi to perform a precise and minimal invasive procedure.
“It made my life very easy. I would even say a child could do a surgery with all this technology. The AR and robotics helped with positioning, trajectory and planning,” he said.
Dr. Mizrahi, who is a spine neurosurgeon from the Spine Surgery Unit and the Department of Neurosurgery, said the technology didn’t speed up the surgery, but rather made it more “effective.”
The successful operation gives Dr. Mizrahi hope that it will allow for the technology to become an integral part of spine surgeries going forward, but that these things take time to get fully implemented.
“It’s a very slow process. If I had to speculate I would say that in about 10 years it will be standard to use AR and robotics for very complex cases,” he said.
The technology is currently only used for spine surgeries, but the hope is that after these successful trials it will be used for injuries on the entire body.
The future looks bright for this technology and we are excited to see where Israeli doctors take it. We know that many innovations like this get exported to help others around the world.
Thank God for the blessing of Israel!
This year, we want to do more to bless Israel and the Jewish people.
We know that as we bless Israel this year, God will bless us, just as He promised in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Now is the time to bless Israel and the Jewish people.
