Medical imaging VR overview

Medical imaging VR uses virtual reality to teach the fundamentals of medical imaging interpretation and explores opportunities and challenges in using immersive 3D visualizations to understand the spatial relationships between the brain, parts of the body, key organs, and their constituent parts. The game element orientates the user and shows them how to read magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRI), understanding the difference between different views with 3D visualization functionality. Through this they learn about brain anatomy and how to identify key regions (e.g., pituitary gland and cerebellum etc) and other features of interest. Interpretation of medical images can be hard for students with large numbers of diseases to visualise and need to understand relative placements of areas of interest. This undertaking is further complicated by the need to interact with, manipulate and navigate through images across several possible views. Image interpretation is traditionally done in two dimensions i.e., 2D slices of what are three-dimensional (3D) objects. The major drawback of this is that the 3D spatial relationship(s) between body parts can be obscured and lost within two- dimensional views. The application uses a game-based approach in immersive 3D to help students learn how to read magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRI) and locate main parts of body/brain, their relative placement(s) and spatial relationships. The goal(s) and challenge(s) of the game are to understand the fundamentals about how to read an MRI of the brain, understand the difference(s) between axial, sagittal, and coronal views, learn about the anatomy of the brain and how to identify and locate key regions and features of interest and identify possible abnormalities in the brain. Players can assess their level of understanding with the interactive and gamified quiz element of the application that includes a leader board and achievements.