3D holograms aren’t just to bring back deceased celebrities to perform at music concerts.

Scripps Clinic recently became the first health care provider in Southern California to use an innovative mixed reality headset technology offering surgeons a 3D holographic view of a patient’s preoperative surgical plan during shoulder replacement procedures.

The new system lets surgeons use hand gestures and voice commands to view and manipulate a hologram of the patient’s preoperative plan from inside the headset lens, while simultaneously maintaining a direct view of the open surgical site.

The technology lets doctors superimpose the 3D surgery plan over the patient’s anatomy on the operating table, providing an intricate, personalized level of prosthetic placement.

“Being able to view the entire surgical plan during the operation is a big advantage for patients because it can help surgeons replicate the pre-op plan with precision,” said Brian Rebolledo, M.D., who is the first Scripps Clinic orthopedic surgeon to use the new system. “Having a detailed 3D model of the patient’s surgical plan directly in our sights in real-time opens up a new window to help further enhance the procedure.”

The surgeon can rotate and zoom in or out of the hologram model while comparing it in real-time to the patient’s anatomy. The holograms are generated by the system’s software through preoperative CT scans.

Scripps Clinic is one of 33 health care providers…