Sarasota Memorial Hospital pioneers new tech in operating room

The neurosurgery team at Sarasota Memorial Hospital achieved what officials say was a “technological milestone” in the operating room, combining mixed-reality headsets with virtual mapping software to guide a recent procedure.

Led by neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Knego, the team pioneered the “first-ever commercial use of Apple Vision Pro’s mixed reality headset combined with eXeX’s revolutionary surgical mapping software to digitize and optimize the operating room,” according to a statement from Sarasota Memorial Health Care System.

Apple Vision Pro is a spatial computer equipped with cameras and sensors. eXeX is an AI-enhanced surgical performance software that provides real-time guidance to ensure instruments are at hand and each step is clear; all members of the surgical team are aligned with the surgical procedure map and sequence; and tray setups and checklists are standardized to support consistency.

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“It is an elegant system [that] helps coordinate the OR staff into a more cohesive team,” Knego posts on LinkedIn.

The result, Sarasota Memorial officials say, is less time in the operating room for patients.

It is not the first time Sarasota Memorial Health Care System has worked to increase operational efficiency with the use of Apple technology; in 2009, the organization reports it pioneered a hospital system nursing iPhone app to better coordinate care.

Sarasota Memorial Health Care System handles nearly 2 million patient visits a year across its network, which includes two full-service hospitals in Venice and Sarasota; freestanding emergency rooms in North Port and Lakewood Ranch; a rehabilitation hospital; behavioral health hospital; skilled nursing facility; and outpatient centers. Its staff performed more than 33,000 surgeries in 2024, and the system reported nearly $1.88 billion in revenue last year.

Dr. Robert Masson, the CEO of Orlando-based eXeX, says on LinkedIn that he worked with Sarasota Memorial Health Care System to implement his platform into their operating rooms.

“As a surgeon who travels the world collaborating with elite surgical facilities and individuals, I could not be more impressed than with SMH,” Masson says. “They have an incredible quality of excellence, innovation and leadership, both administratively and clinically, and it resonates in the culture that they have built as a leading healthcare system in Florida.”