A team from Spoke 2 presented the EVA Navi surgical navigation system at the Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics 2025 in London with a scientific poster dedicated to the system’s pre-clinical trials outcomes.
The event represented an important platform to share the latest innovations in medical robotics and technologies supporting surgery.
The poster, presented by Veronica Penza from the Biomedical Robotics Lab of ADVR at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, in collaboration with the IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino and the University of Genoa, illustrated a study aimed at comparing the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in enhancing surgical awareness during operative procedures.
EVA Navi is surgical navigation system designed to enhance the surgeon’s intraoperative vision through real-time representations of the patient’s 3D anatomy, based on virtual and augmented reality, enabling more informed, personalized, and safer surgery. In fact, surgical awareness—defined as the surgeon’s ability to accurately perceive and interpret the operative field in real-time—is a critical factor for the safety and success of surgeries, especially in complex scenarios.
To evaluate the effectiveness of thefunctionalities of the surgical navigation system, NAVI-VR and NAVI-AR, two in vivo studies were conducted on porcine models, during which a group of general and urological surgeons performed anatomical identification tasks supported by the respective technologies.
The poster presented results related to operative time and usability feedback collected from participants, highlighting strengths and limitations of each technology in the context of surgery assisted by virtual and augmented reality. The research showed that both systems can be valuable tools to improve accessibility and intuitiveness of patient-specific information during surgery by integrating preoperative data with the real-time surgical environment.
The presentation generated significant interest among congress participants, fostering fruitful exchanges of ideas and suggestions with experts from various international backgrounds. The experience also provided an important opportunity to strengthen scientific collaborations and to consolidate the visibility of the RAISE project within the medical robotics field.
The team, composed of Veronica Penza, Domenico Soriero, Eleonora Balestra, Alberto Neri, Jesus Ortiz, and Leonardo S. Mattos, emphasized the importance of this participation for advancing surgical navigation technologies and for the future application of increasingly effective systems aimed at improving surgical safety.
Participation in the Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics 2025 marked a significant milestone, confirming Spoke 2’s commitment within the RAISE project to promote technological innovations in robotic surgery and artificial intelligence applied to medicine.
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Author: Prof. Elena De Momi, Politecnico di Milano
Credits: Prof. Elena De Momi, Politecnico di Milano
