Dr. Eric Rosenberg performed his first Vision Pro-assisted cataract surgery in October 2025 and has since used the headset across hundreds of procedures through ScopeXR, a surgical visualization platform he co-developed for the device. A surgeon doesn't return to a tool hundreds of times unless it improves their workflow, the outcome for the patient, or both.
Instead of looking through a traditional microscope eyepiece, Rosenberg wears the Vision Pro and sees a live stereoscopic 3D view of the patient's eye inside the headset, with patient scans and diagnostic data overlaid alongside it. Other surgeons anywhere in the world can join the same view in real time. Rosenberg put it plainly: "We are now able to bring the world's best surgeon into any operating room, at any hour, from anywhere on the planet."
Apple's M5 update to Vision Pro, released October 22, 2025, delivered the low latency and pixel density microsurgery requires. ScopeXR connects to the Alcon Ngenuity 3D microscope (a digital surgical microscope standard in cataract surgery) already in the OR. Rosenberg didn't replace anything. He supercharged it with the Vision Pro.
A nine-patient exploratory pilot published in May 2025 established that Vision Pro could integrate with real-time 3D surgical imaging during intraocular procedures. Rosenberg's hundreds of cases built on that. Sharp HealthCare has now launched a formal clinical trial to measure whether Vision Pro actually improves patient outcomes in cataract surgery. When it publishes, hospitals will have the evidence they need to decide whether to adopt it.
Vision Pro never found its consumer. It may have found something better.