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The way we interact with technology and data — how we consume information -- is evolving so quickly it is easy to forget the role played by the mouse. Douglas Engelbart’s invention in 1964, which enabled us to engage with 2D technology, consisted of a wooden shell circuit board and two metal wheels[1]. Before then there was no graphic user interface, so people couldn’t engage with technology.
The tech evolution from 2D to 3D and 4D has projected us forwards, with new ways to experience technology. As a consequence a new brand of healthcare is emerging which uses large amounts of medical data to build more immersive, visualization tools to support diagnosis and treatment. In image processing, for example, cardiovascular surgeons can now view individual segments of the heart using a 3D image, and even 3D print a patient’s heart, to better understand the anatomy prior to surgery. And just as we evolved from ‘mouse to swipe’ we are now going through a rapid evolution with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), technologies which are natural and intuitive to us as 3D beings living in a 3D world. So, how should we assess the value and opportunity of this new wave of healthcare innovation?
VR has the potential to evaluate the dose distribution in 3D in an intuitive way, saving planning time with potentially greater precision and fewer side effects of the treatment.
There are already many examples of AR-VR adoption in healthcare, altering everything from the way medical students learn before interventional procedures[3] to helping patients with PTSD[4] and reducing anxiety[5] in children undergoing blood tests or other painful procedures. A study by Duke University in 2016 claimed that virtual reality had helped patients suffering from spinal cord injuries[6] in partially restoring their mobility.
In medical imaging VR can enable better planning to support patient safety by reducing their exposure to radiation dose. The process of building a radiation therapy plan for patients is a very time-consuming, complex exercise. One has to plan a very detailed radiation dose distribution in 3 dimensions, not only taking care of the complex 3D shape of a tumor. We have to build a minimal margin around the tumor and at the same time spare the healthy, critical structures from radiation doses, a root cause of many side effects of radiation therapies. VR has the potential to evaluate the dose distribution in 3D in an intuitive way, saving planning time with potentially greater precision and fewer side effects of the treatment.
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