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Surgery just entered the Matrix, and it’s about to save lives.
Yesterday, Avatar Medical got FDA clearance for something remarkable: a platform that lets surgeons walk through your brain, spine, or heart in 3D before they ever pick up a scalpel.
No special glasses needed. No clunky headsets.
Just pure, spatial anatomy floating in front of the surgical team. 🧠
Here’s why this matters:
Every year, 234 million surgeries happen globally. Studies show that up to 14% have complications, many from inadequate preoperative planning.
Avatar’s Vision platform transforms flat CT and MRI scans into interactive 3D models. Neurosurgeons can rotate tumors. Orthopedic surgeons can measure bone angles. Oncologists can map blood vessels around cancers.
All in real time. All shareable with the entire care team.
The game changer? It works with Barco’s glasses-free 3D displays. Picture this: a surgeon and patient looking at the same floating 3D heart, discussing the procedure together. No more pointing at flat screens trying to explain complex anatomy.
This isn’t just cool tech. It’s addressing a critical gap.
Radiologists generate 3.6 billion imaging studies annually. Yet surgeons still operate using mental models built from 2D slices. That cognitive leap from screen to scalpel? That’s where errors happen.
Avatar Vision bridges that gap. It integrates directly with existing PACS systems, so no workflow disruption. Surgeons can annotate, measure, and manipulate patient anatomy in their natural 3D state.
Neurosurgery, ENT, orthopedics, interventional radiology, they’re all getting this upgrade.
Think about what this means for rural hospitals. A community surgeon can now visualize complex cases like specialists at major centers. A patient can actually see and understand their procedure before consenting.
We’ve been promised the future of medicine for decades. Seeing patient anatomy in true 3D, manipulating it like Tony Stark, planning surgery in virtual space, this isn’t the future anymore.
It’s happening now.
The FDA just said yes to surgery’s biggest visualization leap since the X-ray.
And honestly? It’s about time our surgical planning caught up with our gaming consoles.
♻️ Repost if surgical complications from poor visualization need to end
👉 Follow me, Jonathan Govette, for daily, real-time updates on healthcare technology and business news. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangovette/
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Author:
CEO/Co-Founder @ Oatmeal Health | AI Lung Cancer Screening | Almost Became a Doctor | Engineer | Follow to Share What I’ve Learned Along the Way
I help patients get the care they need earlier, preventing late-stage cancer.
That’s been the throughline across three companies and almost 20 years in healthcare. At ReferralMD, we fixed broken referral networks so patients didn’t fall through the cracks. At Oatmeal Health, it’s lung cancer: building the diagnostic and screening infrastructure so the 85% of cases caught too late get caught early instead.
Today as CEO of Oatmeal Health, I lead a team embedding AI into radiology workflows to turn routine lung CT scans into reimbursable cancer risk assessments. We partner with FQHCs to reach underserved communities, and with health systems and payers to make early detection economically sustainable. Think HeartFlow or Cleerly, but for lungs.
Between companies, I advised at Techstars and Plug and Play, mentoring founders building in digital health. That experience shaped how I think about what separates companies that ship from companies that stall: distribution, reimbursement, and clinical trust, not just technology.
I’m a CancerX alumnus, a 3x healthcare founder, and someone who believes the biggest problems in cancer aren’t scientific. They’re operational.
We’re hiring mission-driven builders at Oatmeal Health. If you want to work on something that matters, reach out.
When I’m not working, I’m traveling, mentoring, and keeping up with one very energetic husky. 🐾
Substack – The Oatmeal Bite:
Millions of patients get less care because of who they are, where they live, or how they look. I’m fighting to change that. CEO @OatmealHealth, a startup built for the underserved. The Oatmeal Bite: intel for clinicians, investors, and advocates.
Jonathan Govette
CEO of Oatmeal Health
Substack:
https://oatmealhealthjonathangovette.substack.com/
