From Virtual Reality To Medical Reality
A medical resident wearing black-rimmed goggles stands before a projection screen and uses a computer to navigate through an oversized 3-D image of the human pelvis, a notoriously difficult part of the body to learn. It's just one way virtual reality is revolutionizing medicine.
Elsewhere, doctors combine scanned images and computer technology to view a patient's organs instead of taking simple X-rays or doing exploratory surgery.
"If a picture's worth a thousand words, then a model like this is worth a thousand pictures," Dr. Theodore Mason, chief resident in the Eye and Ear Infirmary at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said as he used a computer cursor to maneuver through a cave-like image of the inner ear at the university's Virtual Reality in Medicine Laboratory.
In the near future, surgeons are hoping that by using computer generated models, they can perform surgery on a patient's virtual organs, before making the first incision
And as the ability to transmit huge chunks of data improves, they envision the day when doctors will be able to examine and treat patients thousands of miles away.
Researchers at UIC are using a $1.04 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to build computer-generated models of anatomy that will be shared with other medical institutions.
Besides the pelvic floor and inner ear, UIC researchers will soon be able to share other virtual models, including one that would allow doctors to perform delicate surgery on the retina.
"It shows anatomic structures in a way that are otherwise impossible to see. You can't dissect a cadaver this way. You can't dissect a human that you're operating on this way," said Dr. Jonathan Silverstein, a surgery professor and co-director UIC's Virtual Reality lab part of a university system known for its high-tech innovations, including Mosaic, the first Internet browser.
Other institutions are also beginning to use virtual reality to teach anatomy. At the University of California, San Diego, for example, researchers have developed a model of the sphenoid bone, a complex bone in the base of the cranium.
"For probably 20 years, there's been an interest in using computers in teaching anatomy. But to do graphics in real-time three-dimensional ways takes a lot of computing power and takes some very sophisticated data," said Dr. Mark Whitehead, an anatomy professor at the UCSD medical school's department of surgery.
But experts say computer-aided techniques aren't meant to replace traditional learning tools such as cadaver dissection. However, there are benefits, including the fact that it's a far cheaper way to train residents.
Some say using the models to perform virtual surgery also will minimize mistakes in the same way flight simulators help new pilots.
"Pilots don't crash airplanes full of people to train, but we do that to people in the operating room," said Dr. Richard Satava, a surgery professor at Yale Uniersity who also sits on the American College of Surgeons' committee for emerging surgical technologies and education. He expects that in the future, surgeons will have to complete simulated surgeries to become board certified.
But the new technology does take some getting used to.
Researchers at the UIC have found that about half the medical residents who've used virtual reality goggles for the first time haven't felt particularly comfortable. A few temporarily suffered from motion sickness. By the end of their test sessions, however, most have said they were impressed.
By Martha Irvine
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