In May 2025, Wacom acquired shares in Holoeyes, Inc., the developer of the medical image processing software Holoeyes MD. This investment marked the beginning of a full-scale effort to bring Wacom’s digital pen and ink technologies into the medical field.

What kind of digital pen and ink experience can Wacom deliver within medical workflows? We spoke with Hiroshi Fujioka, Director of the XR Product & Business Development Team, and Shota Sato, XR Engineer, about their initiatives to advance medical DX.

— Could you tell us about the XR Product & Business Development team?
Fujioka: Our team primarily focuses on developing the VR pen while also driving business development in the XR domain. At the same time, we are pursuing new business opportunities with partners that we encounter throughout the development process. Our collaboration with Holoeyes is one such example. As team lead, I oversee the entire project.

Sato: As an XR engineer, I specialize in the medical field. In addition to technology development, I value opportunities to speak directly with doctors and medical professionals at academic conferences as well as other similar events. The medical field offers an immense amount of learning. By listening to voices from the front lines, I am continually exploring the types of solutions we can provide.

— What kinds of medical DX initiatives is Wacom pursuing?
Fujioka: Our efforts in the medical field accelerated after we acquired shares in Holoeyes in May 2025. Initially, we envisioned introducing a VR pen in combination with the medical imaging software developed by Holoeyes. However, based on development progress and other factors, we decided to first focus on the digitalization of surgical records.

— What does “digitalization of surgical records” involve?
Fujioka: In Japan, surgical records are a legal requirement under the Medical Practitioners’ Act and serve as an essential record of surgical procedures. In addition to written descriptions and photographs, sketches are often used to clearly convey patient-specific differences in blood vessels and organs. These sketches must be easy to understand, even to third parties. They require clear visual markings such as color-coding anatomical regions and omitting unnecessary details, so they can be referenced during future operations or used to explain procedures to patients.

However, many physicians perform multiple surgeries per day and often spend long hours completing documentation after all of the procedures are finished. By digitalizing this process, we aim to improve workflow efficiency and help reduce the documentation burden placed on physicians, even if only slightly.

— How is Wacom advancing this digitalization process?
Fujioka: We are using the portable creative pad Wacom MovinkPad to explore drawing and documentation functions that incorporate 3D models as underlays, as well as ways to improve workflow efficiency using general-purpose 2D materials such as illustrations of surgical instruments.

The technologies themselves are not entirely new. However, by combining existing technologies, we aim to establish a new standard for digitalizing surgical records.

Example of a digital surgical record created with Wacom MovinkPad

— What are the benefits of digitalizing surgical records?
Fujioka: We believe the benefits extend beyond post-operative documentation and extend into pre-operative planning. By using Holoeyes MD, surgeons can simulate procedures with a 3D model of the actual patient. Compared to reviewing CT images alone, 3D visualization makes spatial relationships between organs and blood vessels much clearer. Surgeons can identify patient-specific vascular structures or the presence of organ adhesions in advance, allowing them to simulate resection ranges before surgery and share critical information with the surgical team. Plans refined on a portable pad can then be expanded upon and edited, ultimately forming the basis of the final post-operative surgical record.

*Holoeyes MD is a certified medical device software program that converts CT and MRI data into 3D models for visualization in both VR and real-world environments.

— What challenges are you currently facing in the development process?
Sato: UI (user interface) design is currently our biggest challenge. Needs vary significantly across medical specialties. Some physicians say that there are too many functions and it’s hard to use, while others request additional features. In certain departments, standard anatomical illustration templates (schemas) used for medical charts are sufficient. In others, capturing detailed patient-specific differences is essential. We’ve also encountered physicians at university hospitals who are highly motivated to create polished illustrations for academic presentations and educational materials.

Fujioka: For the first group, integration with existing medical information input systems can address their needs, and we are preparing for that. The second group requires more complex functionality and further development. Beyond the technology itself, how we package everything into a coherent, user-friendly solution is critical.

— What do you mean by a “solution”?
Fujioka: To ensure adoption, we must design with the entire journey in mind: from entry point to outcome. Initially, we believed that simply introducing our location-independent Wacom MovinkPad would make surgical documentation easier. However, through discussions with Dr. Maki Sugimoto, CEO of Holoeyes and a practicing surgeon, as well as conversations at academic conferences, we often realized that this is different from what we imagined and that there may be another possibility here.

It’s essential to understand not only frontline needs and requests but also hospital systems, security requirements, and physicians’ thought processes. Simply introducing a digital device is not enough to differentiate us from competitors. It’s important for us to clearly define the value that only Wacom can provide.

— You participated for the first time in the annual meeting of the Japan Society for Endoscopic Surgery in December 2025. What was the response?
Sato: It was a valuable opportunity to receive direct feedback and questions from physicians. Many asked about differences compared to PCs or other brands’ products, as well as optimal combinations of operating systems and software for specific applications. I also realized that we still have a lot to learn in order to provide precise proposals tailored to individual needs. Rather than simply listening, we want to respond with concrete suggestions by figuring out an approach on a case-by-case basis. It was encouraging to feel that the solutions we aim to provide are genuinely needed in the field.

 
— What does “inking experience” mean in a medical setting?
Sato: Writing surgical records is far more than simple data entry. It requires integration with hospital systems as well as security design. Portable devices, for example, introduce risks such as personal data leakage if they get lost. Digital records must also track when entries were made and by whom to ensure accountability.

Fujioka: Beyond convenience and usability, we recognize that many analog processes in healthcare protect important elements and safeguards. At the same time, writing and drawing are integral parts of daily medical work, and managing these records electronically offers clear advantages for storage, retrieval, and organization. That is why it is important to communicate the value of the “inking experience” with Wacom instruments. For example, ink data enriched with time, location, and contextual metadata could create distinctive value in medical security and education—value that is uniquely possible with Wacom technology.

Sato: At first, I assumed surgical records were written in real time during procedures. When I learned that they are often written afterward, I wondered how surgeons could remember every detail. Dr. Sugimoto explained that remembering for one’s own understanding and then documenting the details carefully afterward is essential. Writing after the fact allows surgeons to stay fully focused during surgery, while also deepening their understanding of anatomy. For physicians, writing plays a crucial role for retention and comprehension. That is precisely why we want to provide a solution that supports this process without turning it into a burden.

— What future developments are planned in the medical field?
Fujioka: In the medical field, we see development advancing in three main directions. First, we aim to establish digital surgical records by continuing our verification work and moving toward full-scale implementation.

Second, we plan to expand the use of the VR pen. In November 2025, we announced a joint development initiative with Thundercomm to create a platform that enables writing directly in 3D space. As head-mounted display environments continue to evolve, we plan to further test and validate this technology in combination with Holoeyes’ software.

Third, we see a lot of potential in the field of medical illustration. Medical illustrations play an important role in visually communicating anatomical and clinical information and are widely used in academic papers and educational materials. By not only digitalizing the creation process but also integrating illustration workflows into surgical record solutions, we believe we can contribute to medical DX in a broader and more integrated way.

— Finally, what kind of experience do you hope the “inking experience” will become in the medical field?
Sato: Personally, I enjoy drawing, and I hope writing and drawing can also become an enjoyable experience for physicians as well. We want to create a world where writing surgical records is not just another task.

Fujioka: Even physicians who feel they are not good at drawing should be able to think, “I can draw with this.” Our goal is to deliver an experience that brings out the best in physicians and helps them overcome that hesitation.

This article reflects information as of February 2026.