Examples of the present disclosure describe systems and methods for using gesture recognition to control medical hardware and software. In aspects, an activation signal may be received by an input processing system, such as a gesture recognition system, a voice recognition system, or a touch-based system. After receiving the activation signal, user input may be received by the input processing system. The user input may be processed to determine a current or applicable context. Based on the context, one or more actions corresponding to the user input may be identified. The input processing system may then cause the identified action(s) to be performed.