XR technologies on the operating table
To ensure that nothing goes wrong, a surgical operation requires a great degree of preparation. Surgeons must have the best tools available to perform each procedurein a safe and accurate way.
Thinking of surgeons needs and patient safety, at ARSOFT we have developed NextMed, our very own platform which allows healthcare professionals to study the medical images of their patients before each procedure, by using Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality technologies.
XR technologies, a name that encompasses Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality, are becoming a great ally for healthcare professionals. One of the many possibilities of this amazing new techis to allow doctorsto understand the complexities of the human body without having to perform invasive procedures. This also allows the possibility of a remote diagnosis, without the patient having to be in the same location, or it offers a chance to learn how complex diagnostic equipment works.
ARSOFT has spent years researching and developing systems in the clinical field with the aimof helping healthcare professionals tobenefit from XR technologies in their work. The result of all this experience is the NextMed platform, created for healthcare professionals to study medical images using XR technologies in a simple way.
Every surgical procedure requires a great degree of precision. The healthcare professional must have a complete understanding of the patient’s anatomy to successfully carry out the procedure. This is where NextMedcan become a big asset for the surgeon. Through the segmentation and automatic generation of 3D models, this innovative platform allows doctors and surgeons to analyze and manipulate 3D models of the organs prior to the operation. The surgeon can then view the organs that he or she will be operating on in a virtual and immersive environment, thus facilitating a complete understanding of the patient’s anatomy.
Additionally, during the procedure the surgeon can use a Mixed Reality headset to visualize on the patient the important notes created for the surgery during the surgical planning carried out with Virtual Reality. The surgeon can also receive assistance during the procedure since other colleagues can access this information in real time. This will allow other surgeons to assist remotely, as they will be able to see everything he or she is seeing.
How does it work?
NextMed works with the DICOM medical images that the healthcare professional has obtained from the CT (computed tomography) scanner or from the MRI (Magnetic Resonance) scanner. The surgeon uploads these DICOM images to the platform to later choose the anatomical structures that he or shewishes to segment.
After only a few minutes, the system automatically segments the selected areas, and they are now available for the healthcare professionals to study by using XR technologies.
Currently, the segmentation of medical images is a process that is done manually. This makes NextMeda necessary tool, since it can provide surgeons and other healthcare professionals with data they did not have until now: 3D models that show exactly the anatomical region of the patient that the doctor wants to study before the procedure. The surgeon can do so by using a PC or in an immersive environment with Virtual Reality.
NextMed is already being used in different hospitals with excellent results. This solution responds to a need that medical personnel have always had when facing an operation: understanding the anatomical structures and tissues of each patient to carry out the procedure with safety and efficiency.
NextMed was created with one goal in mind: toavoid the fatalities that occur every year in hospitals and that could have been avoided if the surgeon had previously obtained a complete understanding of the patient’s anatomy. “These are deaths that could be avoided by facilitating the understanding of the patient’s structures and tissues” says Santiago González, CEO of ARSOFT, who also stresses that “we are constantly working to offer the best tool to assist doctors, surgeons, and healthcare professionals in their daily work. With these XR technologies, we hope to offer our small grain of sand in the advancement of Medical Science”.