Looking Together ≠ Seeing the Same Thing: Understanding Surgeons' Visual Needs During Intra-operative Coordination and Instruction

Shared gaze visualizations have been found to enhance collaboration and communication outcomes in diverse HCI scenarios including computer supported collaborative work and learning contexts. Given the importance of gaze in surgery operations, especially when a surgeon trainer and trainee need to coordinate their actions, research on the use of gaze to facilitate intra-operative coordination and instruction has been limited and shows mixed implications. We performed a field observation of 8 surgeries and an interview study with 14 surgeons to understand their visual needs during operations, informing ways to leverage and augment gaze to enhance intra-operative coordination and instruction. We found that trainees have varying needs in receiving visual guidance which are often unfulfilled by the trainers’ instructions. It is critical for surgeons to control the timing of the gaze-based visualizations and effectively interpret gaze data. We suggest overlay technologies, e.g., gaze-based summaries and depth sensing, to augment raw gaze in support of surgical coordination and instruction.