Using Formal Qualitative Methods to Guide Early Development of an Augmented Reality Display System for Surgey

Nine laparoscopic surgical experts (2 residents, 4 fellows, and 3 surgeons) underwent semi-structured interview questions to evaluate the concept of a “dual-view” display for laparoscopic surgery. The 30–40 minute audio-recorded interviews were transcribed, submitted to an open source qualitative program for classification and categorizing, and were condensed for the iterative processes of analysis and interpretation. Findings revealed that despite the relatively brief interview sessions and limited number of surgical experts available, the experts provided sufficient insights and suggestions to guide further development of prototypes. This means that the use of semi-structured interviews as an expert knowledge elicitation technique may be suitable for assessing the development of augmented reality display systems for surgical and training applications, and it may have promise for the development of augmented and virtual environments more genially.