Step in the operating room, wherever you are in the world

By Meera Senthilingam, for CNN

Updated 1154 GMT (1954 HKT) April 21, 2016

Health care company <a href="http://www.medicalrealities.com/" target="_blank">Medical Realities</a> is using virtual reality to transport people directly into an operating room to watch surgeons as they operate. Dr. Shafi Ahmed's operating theater held the world's first live surgery in virtual reality last week.
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Health care company Medical Realities is using virtual reality to transport people directly into an operating room to watch surgeons as they operate. Dr. Shafi Ahmed's operating theater held the world's first live surgery in virtual reality last week.
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Medical students -- and members of the public -- tuned in from all over the globe to watch Ahmed perform surgery on a 70-year old British colon cancer patient. Students at the Royal London Hospital where the surgery took place watch the surgery unfold.
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Medical students -- and members of the public -- tuned in from all over the globe to watch Ahmed perform surgery on a 70-year old British colon cancer patient. Students at the Royal London Hospital where the surgery took place watch the surgery unfold.
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Nearly 50,000 people watched the surgery, which lasted two hours and 40 minutes, including these students in Morocco. The greatest numbers watching on desktop were in China.
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Nearly 50,000 people watched the surgery, which lasted two hours and 40 minutes, including these students in Morocco.