Engineers at GE Healthcare’s Global Center of Excellence in Medical Imaging Software in France, used detailed 3D information from CT and MRI body scans to build a virtual experience complete with color, texture, light and other features.
This VR could walk Doctors through the Patient’s Body.
Doctors can use it to observe the glistening pleura of the lungs or ashen pink matter of the brain. They can also “enter” a specific part of the body and closely examine it for things like polyps, tumors and lesions.
The GE team presented their VR prototype during the Radiologiest conference in Paris last year. And they say the feedback from approximately 200 radiologists and surgeons who tested it was “entirely positive.”
The prototype can be used with off-the-shelf VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, and it could be a vital turning point in offering doctors a fresh interpretation of a medical image or to better prepare them for surgery.
Next, GE will start testing the VR system with a customer in France this year before expanding to the United States and Asia. The first prototype will be used as a tool to help doctors learn more about anatomy and how to better identify pathologies.