Sharp launches Spatial Computing Center of Excellence

Feb. 9, 2024

To bring the benefits of spatial computing to the field of medicine, Sharp HealthCare announced the creation of the Spatial Computing Center of Excellence, which will convene clinicians and technologists to establish new ways to enhance patient care using the newly launched Apple Vision Pro. Apple Vision Pro seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world and unlocks powerful spatial experiences.

Sharp is launching this endeavor founded on collaboration with Epic (Sharp’s EHR vendor) and Elsevier, among others. Jointly, they will investigate how spatial computing will enhance effectiveness, productivity, collaboration, education and treatments across a wide range of specialties and clinical roles, from the doctor’s office and operating room to bedside care and caregiver education.

“Using Apple Vision Pro, you can immediately imagine the amazing and far-reaching implications of this technology for the practice and delivery of medicine,” said Chris Howard, president and chief executive of Sharp HealthCare, one of California’s largest integrated health systems.  “Sharp has long been committed to transforming the health care experience, and Vision Pro is indeed a game changer, so much so that we created a center of excellence dedicated to this effort.”

The most significant initiative to date to come from the Sharp Prebys Innovation and Education Center, which opened its doors last year, the Spatial Computing Center of Excellence brings together a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, informaticists, analysts, software developers, digital experience product managers and end-user device architects who will work with external partners to develop, test and deploy innovative solutions at Sharp and across the health care industry.

“We’ve launched the Spatial Computing Center of Excellence to bring together clinicians and technologists from across Sharp HealthCare in order to discover which activities and workflows are best served by this new class of computing technology,” said Dan Exley, MMI, FABC, ACHIP, interim chief information and innovation officer at Sharp HealthCare. “It’s very exciting to see what’s possible with a new tool, like Apple Vision Pro, but it’s really going to be the clinicians and professionals around the organization, working together, that will help us determine which scenarios would we use a tool like this, in a way that we’ve never been able to conduct the ways humans interact with computers or the way a computer helps us complete a particular task.”

“Spatial computing will fundamentally change how doctors practice medicine,” said Tommy Korn, MD, a board-certified ophthalmologist with Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group. “As we continue to explore the opportunities for applications on Apple Vision Pro, it will enable surgeons like me to transcend the limitations of traditional care, enhancing the safety and precision for our patients like never before. This marks the dawn of an era where health care finally leads the way in digital transformation. The future is here.”