Over at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, surgeons are piloting a new “touchless” technology that will assist them during complex aneurysm procedures. It’s based on Microsoft’s Kinect technology, our favorite video game controller turned medical device that’s been mentioned here quite a bit over the last few years.

Developed in conjunction with Microsoft, King’s College, and Lancaster University in the UK, the technology takes an existing 3D image of a patient’s anatomy and produces 2D images of different angles and sections of the 3D image, all of course manipulated using only hand gestures and voice commands. The benefit of this is that surgeons can manipulate images without losing sterility, relying on assistance from a nurse, or even having to step away from the patient.

Recall that last year, we wrote about a similar system being tested in Toronto to view radiology images during surgery. Here’s hoping the Kinect will find itself assisting doctors in even more ways in the coming years!

King’s College: Pioneering touchless technology…

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust: First for touchless technology in vascular surgery…

(hat tip: BBC News)