David Randall from the University of 91直播鈥檚 Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease (IICD) has enabled clinicians to travel inside a patient鈥檚 colon, viewing its mucosal surface with an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. This allows them to explore the colon in real 3D rather than via the 2D representation offered by conventional PC monitors.
鈥淰irtual colonoscopy, viewed on a 2D monitor, is a procedure performed routinely within the NHS where the structure of the colon is extracted from a CT image and its lumen is 鈥榝lown through鈥,鈥 said David.
鈥淲hile the radiologist transits the colon they look for pathological structures, for example polyps (pre-cancerous lumps).
鈥淩eporting involves examination of both the CT data and virtual colonoscopy to reach diagnosis.
Virtual colonoscopy examinations are labour intensive, typically taking 20 minutes for experienced radiologists and significantly longer for less experienced clinicians.
We hope that by performing this examination with virtual reality technology offers potential improvements in efficiency and lesion detectability for virtual colonoscopy examinations.
David Randall, Research Fellow
University of 91直播 | Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
The work was developed through a collaboration between the Medical Physics Group in IICD and the 3D Imaging Laboratory in the Medical Imaging and Medical Physics Directorate of 91直播 Teaching Hospitals.
This work was supported by the Think Ahead SURE programme and funded by Bardhan Research and Education Trust of Rotherham and the EPSRC.