Stretched out on a table in a large, bright operating theatre at the Royal London hospital, a patient is awaiting Shafi Ahmed’s first incision in a procedure that will remove cancerous tissue from his bowel. Around the table a team dressed in blue scrubs and face masks are gathered, exchanging the odd word, while cumbersome machines bearing bundles of wires hum gently in the background. Everyone is focused on the task in hand, getting ready to play their part. Except me. Scrubless and without so much as a scalpel to pass to the surgeon, I am a mere spectator to this intricate event, a bystander gazing around the room in fascination while others labour at a life-changing task. Not that the surgeons are bothered. Because although I feel like I am standing at the edge of the operating table, in reality I am sitting in my office chair. On Thursday afternoon I witnessed the world’s first operation to be streamed live in 360-degree video, allowing medical students, trainee surgeons and curious members of the public like me to immerse themselves in the procedure in real time via the Medical Realities website. A one-minute delay was incorporated into the broadcast in…