Doctors Can Soon Use VR to Explore Your Innards

EchoPixel thinks it's due time doctors explore the body in three dimensions as medical imaging already processes enough info for 3D-rendered parts

EchoPixel uses 3D tech to let doctors explore and manipulate medical imaging in virtual reality fields. This means doctors can dissect your heart on 3D screens before having to open you up using only information from your MRI.

EchoPixel CEO Ron Schilling, PhD thinks it’s time to move away from the flat images doctors work with and help them unlock the full potential of information they already have access to. When working with flat images, doctors have to mentally convert these images into 3D images. This grueling process, given the breadth of virtual reality (VR) technology available today, is just not necessary anymore.

Medicine is fertile ground for VR technology. Medical imaging technology like CT Scans and MRIs already record information enough to build 3D rendering body parts and it does but only in 2D screens that are still unable to project depth.

For example, when a doctor is trying to look for blood clots in the brain, scanned images reveal tissues layer by layer in flat 2D images. Using EchoPixel’s idea, the patient’s brain can be rendered in its entirety as a 3D mass.

On the zSpace display, EchoPixel’s partner, medical doctors can view the patient’s brain as a floating mass of tissue. They can inspect crevices by simply moving their heads. The stylus-based interface allows doctors to take the projected brain apart and look at irregularities in 3D detail so in surgery they come in well-rehearsed.

In non-invasive colon scans, doctors are often left with hundreds of flat images to inspect. In contrast, with VR technology, the colon can be recreated and explored in fly-throughs. Through this, physicians can concentrate on spotting dangerous irregularities than figuring out how each image fit the puzzle.

Medical students can also use this as a tool to explore the human body as if they’re dealing with the actual thing. Although the digital screen won’t replace work on actual tissue, the zSpace can let the medical community build a library of illnesses in VR data so closer inspections, even in rare diseases, can be possible.

The groundwork has already been laid. VR content is already being made every time someone undergoes a diagnostic scan. Hardware capable of VR rendering are already available. Soon enough, we will be able to see our hearts floating in our doctor’s screens.

EchoPixel