Abstract
In the wake of escalating health emergencies and environmental disasters, the ability to provide timely and effective surgical training has become a strategic priority for global health systems. Traditional educational models, heavily dependent on in-person mentorship and access to fully equipped clinical environments, often fail under extreme conditions. Augmented reality (AR) offers an innovative alternative by enabling immersive, interactive, and scalable remote training that can be rapidly deployed even in resource-constrained settings. This integrative review explores the current landscape of AR applications in remote surgical education, particularly emphasizing their role in emergency medicine and disaster response. Across diverse studies, AR demonstrated significant potential to enhance procedural instruction, simulate complex scenarios, and support decision-making under pressure. However, widespread adoption remains limited due to persistent barriers, including a lack of long-term validation, insufficient integration into standardized curricula, and minimal deployment in real-world emergencies. Additional challenges include ethical concerns, digital infrastructure disparities, and limited cross-cultural adaptability. This review underscores the urgency of bridging these gaps by promoting interdisciplinary innovation, policy alignment, and robust field-based research. AR represents a transformative frontier in graduate medical education—one capable of strengthening global surgical preparedness and resilience when it is most urgently needed.