In the early 1990s, a small group of individuals recognized how virtual reality (VR) could transform medicine by immersing physicians, students and patients in data more completely. Technical obstacles delayed progress but VR is now enjoying a renaissance, with breakthrough applications available for healthcare. This book presents papers from the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 22 conference, held in Los Angeles, California, USA, in April 2016. Engineers, physicians, scientists, educators, students, industry, military, and futurists participated in its creative mix of unorthodox thinking and validated investigation. The topics covered include medical simulation and modeling, imaging and visualization, robotics, haptics, sensors, physical and mental rehabilitation tools, and more. Providing an overview of the state-of-the-art, this book will interest all those involved in medical VR and in innovative healthcare, generally.

MMVR offers solutions for problems in clinical care through the phenomenally expanding potential of computer technology. Computer-based tools promise to improve healthcare while reducing cost - a vital requirement in today's economic environment. This seventh annual MMVR focuses on the healthcare needs of women. Women every where demand more attention to breast cancer, cervical cancer, ageing-related conditions. Electronic tools provide the means to revolutionise diagnosis, treatment and education. The book demonstrates what new tools can improve the care of their female patients. As minimally invasive procedures are mainstreamed, advanced imaging and robotics tools become indispensable. The internet and other networks establish new venues for communication and research. Medical education, as well as clinical care, is enhanced by systems allowing instruction and professional interaction in ways never before possible and with efficiency never before achieved. Telemedicine networks now permit providers to meet patients needs where previously impossible. MMVR strengthens the link between healthcare providers and their patients. The volume contains selected papers authored by presenters at the conference. Areas of focus include Computer-Assisted Surgery, Data Fusion & Informatics, Diagnostic Tools, Education & Training, Mental Health, Modelling, Net Architecture, Robotics, Simulation, Telemedicine, Telepresence and Visualisation.

Since 1992, when it began as the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference, NextMed/MMVR has been a forum for researchers utilizing IT advances to improve diagnosis and therapy, medical education, and procedural training. Scientists and engineers, physicians and other care providers, educators and students, military medicine specialists, futurists, and industry all come together with the shared goal of making healthcare more precise and effective.This book presents the proceedings of the 20th NextMed/MMVR conference, held in San Diego, California, USA, in February 2013. It covers a wide range of topics simulation, modeling,

Anatomical Accuracy in Medical 3D Modeling

Magical describes conditions that are outside our understanding of cause and effect. What cannot be attributed to human or natural forces is explained as magic: super-human, super-natural. Even in modern societies, magic-based explanations are powerful because, given the complexity of the universe, there are so many opportunities to use them. The history of medicine is defined by progress in understanding the human body - from magical explanations to measurable results. To continue medical progress, physicians and scientists must openly question traditional models. Valid inquiry demands a willingness to consider all possible solutions without prejudice. Medical politics should not perpetuate unproven assumptions nor curtail reasoned experimentation, unbiased measurement and well-informed analysis. For thirteen years, Medicine Meets Virtual Reality has been an incubator for technologies that create new medical understanding via the simulation, visualization and extension of reality. Researchers create imaginary patients because they offer a more reliable and controllable experience to the novice surgeon. With imaging tools, reality is purposefully distorted to reveal to the clinician what the eye alone cannot see. Robotics and intelligence networks allow the healer’s sight, hearing, touch and judgment to be extended across distance, as if by magic. The moments when scientific truth is suddenly revealed after lengthy observation, experimentation and measurement, is the real magic. These moments are not miraculous, however. They are human ingenuity in progress and they are documented here in this book.

Measurement of In-vivo Force Response of Intra-abdominal Soft Tissues for Surgical Simulation -- Estimation of Soft-Tissue Model Parameters Using Registered Pre- and Postoperative Facial Surface Scans -- Virtual Endoscopy using Spherical QuickTime-VR Panorama Views -- Integration of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) dose distribution into the postoperative CT-based external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) treatment planing -- The application of eyeglass displays in changing the perception of pain -- Evaluation of Visualization Techniques for Image-guided Navigation in Liver Surgery -- Enhanced stereographic x-ray images -- The Communication Between Therapist and Patient in Virtual Reality: The Role of Mediation Played by Computer Technology -- Virtual Reality Assisted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for the Treatment of Panic Disorders with Agoraphobia. -- Dextrous and Shared Interaction with Medical Data: stereoscopic vision is more important than hand-image collocation -- Usability Analysis of VR Simulation Software -- Elastically Deformable 3D Organs for Haptic Surgical Simulation -- A Generic Arthroscopy Simulator Architecture -- Virtual Reality in 3D Echocardiography: Dynamic Visualization of Atrioventricular Annuli Surface Models and Volume Rendered Doppler-Ultrasound -- Engineering and Algorithm Design for an Image Processing API: A Technical Report on ITK - the Insight Toolkit -- Finite Element (FE) Modeling of the Mandible: from Geometric Model to Tetrahedral Volumetric Mesh -- Author Index

The 17th annual Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR17) was held January 19-22, 2009, in Long Beach, CA, USA. The conference is well established as a forum for emerging data-centered technologies for medical care and education. This proceedings volume is of interest to physicians, surgeons and other medical professionals.

Since the debut of the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) conference in 1992, MMVR has served as a forum for researchers harnessing IT advances for the benefit of patient diagnosis and care, medical education and procedural training. At MMVR, virtual reality becomes a theatre for medicine, where multiple senses are engaged - sight, sound and touch - and language and image fuse. Precisely because this theatre is unreal, it is a valuable tool: the risks of experimentation and failure are gone, while the opportunity to understand remains. Improvement of this tool, through steady technological progress, is the purpose of MMVR. This book presents papers delivered at the MMVR18 / NextMed conference, held in Newport Beach, California, in February 2011, with contributions from international researchers whose work creates new devices and methods at the juncture of informatics and medicine. Subjects covered include simulation and learning, visualization and information-guided therapy, robotics and haptics, virtual reality and advanced ICT in Europe, validation of new surgical techniques, and many other applications of virtual-reality technology. As its name suggests, the NextMed conference looks forward to the expanding role that virtual reality can play in global healthcare. This overview of current technology will interest those who dedicate themselves to improving medicine through technology.

MMVR is the premier conference on emerging data-centered technologies for medical care and education. MMVR is a multidisciplinary forum for computer scientists and engineers, physicians and surgeons, medical educators and students, military medicine specialists, and biomedical futurists. At MMVR, developers and end-users collaborate and innovate. MMVR encourages a critical examination of current progress: from initial vision and prototypes, through assessment and validation, to clinical and academic utilization and commercialization. MMVR supports improved precision, efficiency, and outcomes i.