New Scottish Research Leads to Major Innovation in Medical Visualisation GSA Digital Design Studio/Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Event 14/11/07

Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio (DDS) and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh have developed revolutionary anatomical visualisation techniques which have the potential to radically improve medical education and surgical procedures. The quality of the DDS images, and the opportunities presented in this application of advanced computer visualisation, puts Scotland at the forefront of one of the most important areas of contemporary medical research.

Ongoing research into the potential applications of these new interactive visualisation techniques in teaching, training, surgical rehearsal and pre-operative planning will greatly improve the treatment and care of patients. The worldwide potential of this Scottish innovation to improve teaching has already been acknowledged by leading practitioners who have reviewed the work to date.

On Wednesday 14th November 2007 around 100 leading Scottish medical practitioners, including the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Mr John Orr, will gather at the House for an Art Lover, where the DDS is based, for a conference to review the Studio’s work in this field and help set the agenda for building upon the achievements to date of this unique partnership. This new work will:

# give the public a greatly enhanced understanding of the disease process.

# greatly enhance the teaching of medicine and human anatomy.

# enable surgeons to rehearse complex surgical procedures.

These new visualisations are of superb visual quality and offer major benefits in practice. This is a Scottish achievement with worldwide implications.

Speaking on behalf of the Royal College of Surgeons, its President, John Orr, commented,

“The Royal College is delighted to be working in partnership with the Digital Design Studio on this hugely important research. The potential benefits of these new, high resolution, interactive visualisations are immense. As educators and clinicians the members of the Royal College worldwide will benefit from a new tool which has the potential to greatly enhance medical teaching, diagnostics and practice. The long term benefits to the health and wellbeing of individuals worldwide will be considerable”.

Professor Paul Anderson, Director of the Digital Design Studio also emphasised the huge potential benefits of these new interactive visualisations,

“The Digital Design Studio has a well established reputation for its work in the fields of engineering and technology. The application of the Studio’s expertise to medical visualisation has, in little over a year, demonstrated the breadth of opportunity represented in this work. Our partnership with the Royal College has helped generate some of the most advanced images of the human anatomy ever seen. The ongoing development of this work and its specific application to teaching, the diagnosis of disease and medical and surgical research has the potential to benefit all of humanity”.

Press Contacts Neil Baxter, Neil Baxter Associates (Press Liaison) - 07770 483 934 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Professor Paul Anderson, Director, Digital Design Studio – 07968 849 168 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Professor David Rowley, Director of Education, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh – 07860 792 821 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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This animation illustrates ongoing research conducted by the DDS into developing real-time interactive anatomical teaching. The interface and data set are designed to be viewed using 3D stereoscopic LCD shutter glasses where the user can fluidly experience the 3D data set. Interaction is achieved by the user wearing a sensor glove that provides vibro tactile feedback when interacting with the data and tools within the interface. Sound is also used to confirm touch cues and switching between tools. The animation illustrates a medical student using the system and demonstrates how various subsets of data can be removed or culled. The ability to pick up any part of the data set and interactively explore from any view point is seen as a key step forward in interpreting complex dimensional anatomical data. The user can also place their head (by leaning into the display) into the data and visually look around internal structures; equally they can also pull the data towards their eyes placing their viewpoint within the data and again allowing very fluid visual and tactile exploration.

The ability to move away from traditional methods of viewing the human body i.e. from a prone position or from top down allows medical students to more fully understand three dimensional structures. The ability to investigate from any angle or viewpoint (flight simulator style) allows individuals to build up a 3D picture or volume that becomes meaningful for learning and practice. Understanding relationships of form, fundtion, scale or connectivity is fundamental to developing a deeper understanding of anatomical structures and equally the ability to remove (or turn off) subsets of data allows a visual concentration and understanding to be given to critical systems or key features.

Professor Paul Anderson

The Digital Design Studio and the Scottish Medical Visualisation Network were approached by Wild Dream Productions to assist in the production of a TV documentary series about mediaeval medicine for the History Channel.

In 1403, Prince Hal, later Henry V, received a grievous injury when an arrow penetrated and became embedded in his head below the eye. The Digital Design Studio visualised this celebrated example of early surgery where the surgeon/blacksmith was able to remove the arrow. Part of the programme was filmed at the Digital Design Studio with a neurosurgeon from the Royal College of Surgeons, London, describing the procedure using real-time interactive 3D visualisation (see images below).