Animated DICOM in VR for Improved Surgical Planning and Medical Education
Animated medical imaging plays an important role in thoracic and cardiac surgery. Medicalholodeck® now allows the import of animated, 4D medical imaging from CT, MRI, and Echocardiography. Used in virtual reality, 4D data adds significant value to surgical planning, training, and education.
4D DICOM from CT, MRI, and echocardiography can be displayed, enlarged, and filtered in real-time.
Thanks to modern CT, MRI, and ultrasound devices, the upper body can be recorded in 3D over time, creating medical imaging of a beating heart, a breathing lung, or moving heart valves.
These animated images are used for diagnosis and surgical planning. Medicalholodeck’s Medical Imaging XR now enables the import and display of such 4D images in a fully immersive, virtual reality space.
“Those 3D images of a beating heart in Medicalholodeck are amazing.
I have never seen anything like that!”
William E. Cohn, MD
Developer of the continuous-flow, totally implantable, artificial heart. About Dr. Cohn
4D medical imaging can be displayed and processed holographically in virtual reality in Medicalholodeck: users can enlarge the data as desired, filter in real-time, crop, and playback at various speeds. The 4D functions are also available in team player mode, allowing location-independent case reports, surgical planning, and teaching.
Improve Diagnostics, Prevention, and Treatment With 4D Data
Medical 4D data plays a vital role in cardiology, thoracic surgery, and heart surgery. It improves diagnostics, prevention, and treatment. Medicalholodeck displays 4D data in a fully immersive virtual reality environment, helping medical professionals to enhance their surgical planning. Movements of the heart and lungs are precisely displayed, showing the changing position of tumors during a breath or a heartbeat.
4D Medical Imaging of a beating heart, displayed in Medicalholodeck.
Today, 4D DICOM data is typically watched on the computer screen. However, the use of such data on flat, two-dimensional screens limits its benefit: the depth is always lost, interactivity and size are limited. With Medicalholodeck's new 4D capacities, animated medical DICOM data can be displayed interactively in holographic space and processed immersively in real-time, unleashing the full potential of this valuable resource.
The Technology Behind 3D Surgical Planning in VR
Medicalholodeck is available for desktop, laptop, and location independent Remote Rendering.
Certified Hardware for Local Installations
For professional 3D surgical planning on local hardware, Medicalholodck certified the DELL Precision Tower 7920 with 64GB of Ram with
NVIDIA’S RTX 6000 or RTX A6000 GPU’s. They offer up to 48 Gigabytes of GPU Memory, resulting in very high performance and resolution.
3D Surgical Planning With Remote Rendering
Medicalholodeck’s Remote Rendering service is using Nvidia’s CloudXR technology to stream the 3D medical imaging content to untethered, virtual reality headsets from a remote server.
Remote Rendering is the fastest and easiest way to establish professional and location-independent medical imaging in VR. No computers, no sensors, and no cables are needed. Remote Rendering with CloudXR brings new possibilities to 3D surgical planning and surgical training.
Location-Independent Surgical Planning With GPU Clouds
Medicalholodeck’s Remote Rendering service is instantly available, allowing professional location-independent surgical planning and case reporting in VR, without hardware installation.
Medicalholodeck is optimized for GPU cloud instances.
These servers are specially designed for graphics-intensive applications such as medical virtual reality offering powerful NVIDIA A10G Tensor Core GPU with 24GB of memory.
Virtual Reality vs. Computer Screen
Medicalholodeck’s new support of medical 4D data offers various benefits to medical professionals. Image processing, medical diagnosis, and surgical planning occur in virtual reality without the limitations of a computer screen. Surgeons can now process radiological images independently, gaining the optimal personal insight into their patients. They can plan the upcoming surgery quickly and efficiently - from their very own point of view. With Medicalholodeck, complications can be identified before a surgery, and the surgical procedures can be adapted.
4D echocardiography, showing moving heart valves in virtual reality.
Medicalholodeck’s advantages:
fully immersive, holographic use of medical imaging
4D CT, 4D MRI and 4D Echocardiography data in VR
real life-size display with unlimited scaling possibilities
holographic teamwork capability
Medicalholodeck can also be used at universities for surgical training, medical teaching, and anatomical education. Besides Medical Imaging XR, the DICOM viewer for virtual reality, Medicalholodeck offers Dissection Master XR and Anatomy Master XR. The simultaneous use of all three apps allows the direct comparison of medical imaging, human dissections, and 3D anatomy models. Medicalholodeck offers a unique resource for modern medical education.
Virtual Reality vs. 3D Printing
Compared with 3D printing technologies, virtual reality offers various advantages as well as huge savings. Medicalholodeck imports data directly from PACS, hard disk, or the cloud. The importing procedure takes just a few seconds, and the data remains fully editable during time of use.
Medicalholodeck’s advantages:
no waiting time
no data segmentation needed
no 3D printers needed
animated data display possible
real-time data editing at any time
holographic teamwork capability
With Medicalholodeck, time-consuming segmentation and data preparation are not necessary. The surgeon works on the original DICOM data provided by the radiology department. The surgeon can precisely set and change the displayed tissue densities at any time, which massively improves his understanding of the case.
Compared to 3D printing, the necessary hardware and infrastructure costs for Medicalholodeck are minimal. Thanks to Medicalholodeck’s Remote Rendering capacities, no computer is needed anymore. Only a commercially available headset for less than USD 1000 is necessary.
The use of Medicalholodeck saves time and energy. In 3D printing, a surgical model's preparation and 3D print easily takes hours of working time. With Medicalholodeck, medical images are displayed and available within seconds.
When it comes to animated 4D data, the advantages are apparent and 3D Printing will never be able to display these advantages. Medicalholodeck is the only VR software that can display four-dimensional DICOM data, in real-time, and in teams.
NEW: CloudXR. Remote Rendering for Medical Imaging in VR
CloudXR is Medicalholodeck’s render service for high quality medical imaging in virtual reality.
3D medical data can now be used anywhere at any time, offering new possibilities in medicine. Learn more >
CloudXR: Remote Rendering for High Performance Medical Imaging in VR
Improve Surgical Planning and Medical Education With Virtual Reality
Medicalholodeck opens new possibilities for surgical planning, surgical education, and medical education. The support of animated, 4D CT, MRI, and Echocardiography data improves diagnosis and treatment, resulting in better patient healthcare while reducing costs at the same time.
The 4D medical imaging features are now available for Medicalholodeck’s PRO and EDU customers.
Medicalholodeck is the platform for medical teamwork in virtual reality.
Medical Imaging XR,
Dissection Master XR, and
Anatomy Master XR
are available. The suite of apps is used for 3D surgical planning in and
outside the operating room and medical education in teams in VR.