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A Novel Approach to CT Scans’ Interpretation via Incorporation into a VR Human Model

The potential role of enhanced visualization in radiological training is still a largely uncharted area with contemporary training requirements having an impact on clinical facilities that have to split their operational time between radiological examinations for patients and the training needs of radiologists. This paper presents the development process of a hybrid method, and visualization system, that merges Virtual-Reality with contemporary CT scan planes. By combining CT images (2D slices) with accurate interactive 3D anatomical datasets, that learners can manipulate, flythrough and rotate, whilst varying the level of complexity for learning purposes, allows significant comprehension of complex structures and anatomical variation. By providing a 3D immersive stereo environment where trainees can interpret CT slices and gain spatial correlation inside the human body, this paper examines the potential, as well as the drawbacks, for deployment of such system for large-scale teaching audiences. A workflow was established that enabled raw CT data to be positioned as a series of planes or block of planes that intersected with the VR human dataset within a prototype HCI system. A comparative study was then conducted in order to identify and evaluate the potential benefits and pitfalls of the VR-CT teaching versus traditional methods of teaching the interpretation of CTs. Anderson was the principal investigator for a feasibility study funded (£95,000) by the Scottish Funding Council and Chief Medical Officer (£30,000), to investigate the research opportunities for real-time medical visualization across multiple disciplines. Anderson established the Scottish Medical Visualisation Network (www.medicalvisualisation.com) resulting in multiple outputs and publications. This paper was presented at the Digital Human Modeling Second International Conference, ICDHM 2009, Held as Part of HCI International 2009, San Diego, CA, USA and was also published in a Book 'Digital Human Modeling', Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 5622/2009.