EchoPixel will use information from medical imaging to produce 3D VR organs, which doctors can explore before surgery.
Doctors currently rely on flat images from CT and MRI scans for pre-op information about a patient’s organs. Now, however, health tech start-up EchoPixel is planning to use the information garnered from current medical imaging technology to produce 3D VR organs, which doctors can explore and inspect before beginning surgery.
True 3D uses the images that are already being gathered during medical imaging processes to create 3D-rendered body parts. These floating masses can then be examined via a VR platform called zSpace. Doctors can rotate and dissect the images of organs, including the brain and the heart, using a stylus. They can even examine a colon via a simulated fly-through.
EchoPixel hope their technology will help doctors gain an enhanced understanding of the intricacies of each organ, and enable them to go into surgery well prepared. Medical students can also use the platform as a supplementary learning tool.
There are many benefits to this innovative new system: True 3D is a real-time, interactive VR system. It moves beyond the flat screen, displaying real patient anatomy in open 3D space, with instant response and seamless interaction capabilities. Anatomical information is tailored to be procedure-specific, easily accessible and unobstructed. It provides the required visual context with no extraneous information, significantly lowering the cognitive load for doctors. Finally, it is intuitive to use. Specialized tools enable users to directly grasp, dissect and size key clinical features with one move.
Current medical visualization techniques have limitations in representing the complex 3D relationships present in human anatomy. In order to successfully identify an area of interest from a 3D medical dataset, such as those produced by CT, MRI and other devices, doctors are required to combine a series of 2D images in their mind and mentally extract the relevant 3D relationships that define the tissue or organ of interest as well as its neighbouring anatomy. In complex cases, they must visually map two or more views of the same data to find appropriate correspondences of one view with another view to produce a match and determine if what they see is the tissue they want to evaluate.
The True 3D approach is significantly different from current 3D rendering technologies because it enables readers to visualize and interact with tissue and organs in open 3D space using a hand-directed stylus as if they were real physical objects.
Doctors and hospitals across the United States are using True 3D to increase clinical knowledge in a range of procedures and are receiving widespread positive feedback. In areas such as interventional cardiology, paediatric cardiology, interventional neuroradiology and CT colonography, doctors are using 3D interactive virtual reality to assist clinical efficacy and workflow.
Among many others, True 3D’s clinical sites include the Lahey Clinic, Boston Scientific, the Deborah Heart and Lung Center and Toronto Sick Kids Hospital. In addition to clinical uses, EchoPixel’s True 3D is showing enormous potential as a research and training tool. Their research and education sites include Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.
We have already seen VR being used as a tool for pain relief. This more complex system is a great example of combining cutting-edge medical imaging software with VR capability to create a product that is greater than the sum of its parts, and that will improve training, treatment and patient care for years to come.
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Website: www.echopixeltech.com
Contact: www.echopixeltech.com/contact-us
Company name: EchoPixel Tech
Innovation name: EchoPixel
Country: United States
Industries: Design / Education / Health & wellbeing / Non-profit & social cause