An Ontario doctor says broadcasting a “how to” facial reconstruction procedure to surgeons 8,000 kilometres away in Ukraine epitomizes what he and his partners had in mind when inventing the technology.

Hamilton, Ont. neurosurgeon Dr. Aleksa Cenic says Vivo Surgery, a multi-view live stream platform, has expanded worldwide over four years.

It now teaches medical students, residents, fellows and physicians in 30 locations.

War-torn Ukraine was one of those spots where this past year 19 doctors oversaw and interacted with a pair of plastic surgeons during a 15-hour operation on a gunshot patient.

“So they were very pleased with the ability to watch this, to interact and ask questions,” Cenic revealed.

The birth of the technology came during a time of need when medical students were banned from operating rooms due to distancing attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cenic, also a prof at McMaster University, said the inspiration for Vivo came from a conversation with a med student lamenting how a critical part of her education, witnessing live surgeries, was not being fulfilled.

“She’s like, I can’t come and watch surgeries. How do I know I’m going to want to become a medical specialist or surgical specialist?” Cenic recalls. “Then, boom, the idea popped into my head.”

A cloud-based platform, Vivo live streams surgeries by combining a physician’s head camera with tools like a surgical microscope, laparoscope or endoscope, also embedded with cameras.

Students watch real-time from the point of view of the lead surgeon and ask questions while in the comfort of their own homes.

“A student once told me she was on VIA Rail going to Montreal and watching one of our surgeries,” according to Cenic.

After connecting with a streaming engineer at one of his daughter’s dance classes, Cenic hooked up with Phil Mohabir, a former global expansion leader for IMAX and the eventual Vivo Surgery CEO. The tech would get noticed when Mohabir arranged for a video ad on YouTube targeting medical students, which received over 1,000 responses from around the world.

According to Cenic, the service allows up to 50 learners to join in on an operation, compared to just one or two in a conventional operating room setting at a hospital.

With connections across the United States, Caribbean, Singapore, Oman, Poland, Switzerland and England students from around the world are now part of an audience looking in on procedures at Hamilton Health Sciences hospitals and the University of Basel Hospital in Switzerland.

This innovation is an award winner having secured a $50,000 funding grant from HHS last year and an opportunity to apply for similar amounts via a renewal process in 2024.

With expansion on their minds, Cenic and Mohabir are banking on the technology’s portability to be a key selling point.

“The great thing is its portable … so you don’t have to outfit a room,” according to Cenic. “All you need basically is secure Wi-Fi and a laptop or even a desktop where you could plug in USB inputs.”