During surgery, the ability to navigate medical images like X-rays and MRIs is often essential. But keeping things clean eats up time, as surgeons often have to verbally instruct support staff through the images. The alternative is to remove their gloves, scrub their hands and arms, interact with the images, and scrub back in after touching the computer – a process that can take 10 minutes or more.

Healthcare tech company TedCas offers a natural user interface solution that allows doctors to use their hands in the air to zoom, rotate, and swipe through images. Today they announced an integration with the Leap Motion Controller that’s being tested in 6 hospitals around the world. The featured video shows how using Leap Motion with TedCas saves time and energy in the operating room – from a cardiac surgeon examining scans of his patient’s heart, to a cancer specialist looking for a brain tumor.

“TedCas allows surgeons to use a natural user interface to save time and have precise control and interaction with the information they need during surgery,” says Jesus Perez-Llano, CEO and co-founder of TedCas. “It’s a critical application for surgeons, and TedCas is excited to integrate Leap Motion to bring a new level of precise motion control technology to the operating room.”

Simon Karger, Associate Director of Surgical & Interventional Business at Cambridge Consultants, agrees that touchless control in the OR is a game-changer:

Delicate surgical procedures can often see surgeons spending eight or even twelve hours in theatre. Complex, often uncomfortable device interfaces and the need for robust sterility management makes these already stressful and complex long procedures even more mentally and physically challenging.

Control interfaces that work in the operating theatre – giving the surgeon control while maintaining their sterility – have always been a challenge. The latest wave of new technologies (like touchless interfaces, gesture control, etc.) have the potential to change this, finally bringing 21st century technology to the hand of the surgeon.

Surgeons around the globe could soon be using TedCas software with the Leap Motion Controller, as trials have already rolled out to 6 hospitals and 2 medical research centers around the world – including Ireland, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Canada, and the United States.