Emotional Support for Astronauts and Triage Control: The Revolution of the Holographic Doctor

By Andrea Muñoz
Perhaps you don’t know who Dennis Gabor was. He won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics thanks to holography—a concept he developed in the late 1940s to improve the resolution power of electron microscopes.
The Spanish Royal Academy (RAE) defines a hologram as “an image obtained by means of holography.” Holographic images seem to come toward the viewer.
Today, holograms are already a reality in some medical centers: full-size, realistic, three-dimensional images of doctors intended to recreate a physical presence. For instance, Texas’s Crescent Regional Hospital uses holographic technology to connect patients in remote areas with medical experts. This was introduced in partnership with the Dutch tech company Holoconnects, which first used it in 2022 at airports and events. Two years later, the deployment expanded to hospitals in India, Germany, the United States, Italy, Qatar, and South Korea.
“There is a growing need for human, digital, and immersive interaction in healthcare,” explains the company’s founder and CEO, Andre Smith. He describes the experience: “Both the patient and the doctor appear as holograms in separate rooms, or even across different facilities. This enables realistic consultations without the need to travel. Another way to use it is for collaboration between doctors, allowing internal meetings without requiring a physical presence”.

Smith also emphasizes that “it’s not intended to replace physical examinations,” detailing its use cases: “Patient intake and triage, health education and orientation, follow-up consultations, medication adherence and behavioral support, mental health assessments, multilingual explanations, and emotional support”.
One particularly fascinating application is for astronauts: “This is highly relevant for remote and isolated environments, including long-duration space missions. AI-powered holographic avatars could support astronauts with mental health support, medical instructions, and real-time problem-solving, offering a sense of human connection and guidance even when real-time communication with Earth is delayed. This possibility is already being explored as a future application in collaboration with partners specializing in extreme environments”.
They are also deploying AI companions who guide patients from hospital entry to consultation phase. “They welcome patients inside the ‘Holobox’ (the name for the holograms) and can appear in rooms to explain procedures, thus creating a continuous, reassuring care experience,” he adds.

What Do Doctors Think?

Jaime Bona, a family doctor and coordinator of the AI & Digital Health working group at the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC), notes that most use of this technology is in the U.S. “Although it is in an early stage, it is already being used in some hospital centers in our country. From what I know, it has been used to support surgery at the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona, or in surgical planning in hospitals such as Gregorio Marañón, Virgen Macarena, Virgen del Rocío in Seville, or Marqués de Valdecilla,” he tells El Confidencial.
“Although less documented in Spain, holographic and mixed reality technology is widely used elsewhere for training medical students and healthcare professionals, and it’s likely that Spanish centers are exploring these applications too,” he adds.
Among the benefits identified by the doctor are improved access and reduced inequities, optimized physician time, better communication and understanding, enhanced doctor‑patient relationship, and potentially improved clinical outcomes.
On the downside: high costs, integration and regulatory challenges, and skepticism. “Currently, there are no universal standards for creating, transmitting, and interpreting medical holographic images, which can hinder interoperability and the comparison of outcomes. There is also skepticism among some professionals about whether the added value of holograms in consultation truly justifies the investment, especially compared to established 2D telemedicine platforms. Resistance to change or technological fatigue among healthcare staff may also be a barrier”.

Moreover, Spain’s digital health landscape is quickly expanding, driven by greater adoption of emerging technologies like AI, Big Data, telemedicine, robotics, 3D printing, virtual and augmented reality, and wearables. These tools promise to transform healthcare, making it more personalized, predictive, preventive, and participatory.
However, rapid technological evolution poses “significant regulatory challenges” to ensure safety, efficacy, ethics, and equity. Data privacy and protection, clinical validation, ethics, equity, and legal responsibility are among the concerns).
“Spain is in the process of regulatory adaptation to accommodate the enormous possibilities offered by new technologies in medicine. The main challenge is finding a balance between fostering innovation and ensuring the highest level of patient protection, addressing the complex technical, ethical, legal, and social challenges these technologies bring. Collaboration between regulators, developers, healthcare professionals, patients, and researchers is essential to build a safe, effective, and equitable digital health ecosystem,” he concludes.

Original story by: El Confidencial