Gagan Singh, MD, an interventional cardiologist at University of California Davis Health in Sacramento, has performed the first procedure using EchoPixel's 4D holographic software, called the Holographic Therapeutic Guidance, according to a Jan. 3 report from The The California Aggie.
The new software allows physicians to view a digital medical image of the patient in the form of a 4D interactive hologram before and during the procedure.
Dr. Singh used the holographic technology during a MitraClip procedure, which restores normal blood flow to leaky mitral valves.
The hologram is still in its early stages of use and development, and will need improvements on its software image resolution, according to the report.
"So this software is a hologram, portraying in real-time the patient's heart while it's beating, and you can crop out the part of the heart that you're really interested in," Dr. Singh told the Aggie. "You have the device in there at the exact same time while doing the procedure, and I'm no longer relying on an echocardiologist to do all the manipulation."