Digital Health Today 360 with Dan Kendall

S2: #019: Dr. Shafi Ahmed on Connecting a Billion Minds with Virtual Reality

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My guest today is Dr. Shafi Ahmed. He is a colorectal surgeon in London practicing in the NHS at St Barts as well as several private hospitals. He is also a Director and Non-Executive director of several organizations, a Member of the faculty at Exponential Medicine at Singularity University, an Associate Dean at Barts and the London Medical School, a council member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a futurist, innovator and tech entrepreneur. He is also a co-founder of VirtualMedics.org and Medical Realities

You may have seen the coverage of Dr. Ahmed’s virtual reality surgery which he performed and streamed live in April 2016. In our conversation, he explains how he’s using Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) to teach surgery and accelerate the training of surgeons around the world.


In today’s conversation we talk about:

  • The unmet need for surgeons and surgery around the world
  • How to accelerate training and teaching using AR and VR technologies
  • How technology can help reach underserved areas of the world
  • How the role of surgeons will change with the use of augmented and artificial intelligence and robotics
  • The coming “surgical singularity” (see below!)

    • Links and Resources Mentioned:

    • Shafi Ahmed on Twitter: @ShafiAhmed5
    • Shafi Ahmed on Facebook
    • Connect with Shafi on LinkedIn
    • The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery 
    • VirtualMedics.org  http://stfi.re/egewozn
    • Medical Realities on the web (and follow on Twitter) 
    • Ray Kurzweil – The Singularity is Near. http://amzn.to/2mbMxoX
    • Technological Singularity: http://stfi.re/ggkkavk
    • Wired Article on Virtual Reality Surgery
    • Follow Dan Kendall on Twitter (@HealthTechDan)
    • Join Digital Health Today

      • Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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      Digital Health Today 360 with Dan KendallBy Dan Kendall / Part of the Health Podcast Network
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