Virtual Reality and Visualization of 3D Reconstructed Medical Imaging: Learning Variations Within Detailed Human Anatomies

The emerging field of virtual reality has many promising new applications for the medical sciences. For example, by converting magnetic resonance and tomography-based images into 3D models, users can visually inspect individualized anatomic reconstructions at clinically useful high resolutions. Yet, adequate development of these tools will require a wide breadth of associated expertise to take advantage of current video game technologies while maintaining relevance for clinical use. Our laboratory has begun to implement such system approaches for the exploration of hearts, cadaveric specimens, and medical device-tissue interactions. We have created hundreds of anatomical scenes that were developed using physician feedback from conferences worldwide. We demonstrate several aspects of the potential applicability of virtual reality to serve both clinical science and education, and additionally discuss future prospects.