Surgeons use leap motion to interact with imaging data during procedure

Check out the movie on YouTube

Realview - Holographic Visualization in the OR during heart surgery

Check out this video from Realview. They developed a holographic visualization system that was actually used in the Operating Theatre.
This really looks like a breakthrough technology that could have major impact on the way three-dimensional imaging data of patients is used in the operating room. Their current hardware looks a bit bulky for the already crowded OR, but this might become smaller in the future to allow real integration. Big advantage is the ability to have touch-less interaction with the 3D holographic image which is a huge benefit in the OR.
Also check-out their website at www.realviewimaging.com

Nomination for Innovation Award of the Hanze Institute of Technology for Kinect project

One of the students working on an assignment in my group to evaluate the use of the MS Kinect for use in the operating theatre has been nominated for the innovation award of the Hanze Institute of Technology based on this thesis work. The official press release can be found here.

Just a short demonstration video:

The student used the Kinect to allow a surgeon to walk through the data available for a patient using minimal gestures using an easy and intuitive user interface. We are currently trying to arrange the continuation of his project.

CARS 2013 - OR Systems Design and Applications

Ratib and Amato discussed about intelligent design in the OR. They state that intelligence in workflow and data management will drive future diagnostic and treatment platforms...from Patient models... To intelligent patient models. They stated that in intelligent design the BIM (building intelligent model) should be used allowing integration of simulation into a 3D model. This concept is already used in other areas and should be introduced in the design of facilities in healthcare integrating the patient specific model into the design. There is too much technology in the OR, the future paradigm should be to move the technical stuff outside the OR. On the other side, imaging is entering the OR and new technologies are coming fast.

Five other presentations were given touching different aspects of developments in the OR. Generally it was discussed that a lot of information is available during surgery from different systems on different computer screens and that intelligent systems are required to optimalize the data rich OR environment.
This requires a new vision on how the data should be presented to the surgeon. Decreasing the number of screens by integration of the sources on one switchable display is one of the presented solutions. A group from Leipzig showed how they perform this switching automatically using a roadmap of the OR workflow for the procedure currently performed. Huang discussed a currently running and tested integrated OR setup. Other topics covered were the standardization of robotic interfaces for image guided surgery using OpenIGTLink, and experiences with IP based systems in the OR.

The main direction presented by most is to move to more intelligent systems and infrastructures. Possible direction is by employing machine learning.

CARS 2013

The coming days I will be attending the CARS 2013 in Heidelberg, Germany. I will mainly focus my attendence of scientific sessions to the EuroPACS part and the digital OR developments. For more information keep a look on this blog for the coming days.

CARS is running from June 26-29, 2013. For more information visit their website.