Furthermore, they can customize the virtual surgeries, planting certain kinds of tumors or presenting certain challenges for the students to learn. And if the students cut into the cadaver in the wrong way or make a mistake, they can just start over.

Floating hearts


But virtual holography isn't just making inroads with medical education — new technology developed by Royal Philips and Israeli firm RealView Imaging Ltd. may help physicians performing interventional procedures better visualize the patient's heart.

The two firms have announced this week that they have completed a pilot study that tested out interactive, real-time 3-D holographic visualization technology with eight patients in collaboration with the Schneider Children's Medical Center in Petach Tikva, Israel.

The technology, the first of its kind, uses Philips' interventional imaging technology to recreate a 3-D holographic representation of the patient's heart that floats in space without the need for screens or eyewear.

In addition, doctors can manipulate the heart by touching the projected holographic model.

"It's as if you have a real life-size heart under your eyes. You can use an object like a stent and hold that into the hologram and see if it fits in the coronary artery to see if it's the right size stent," explained Bert van Meurs, senior vice president at Philips HealthCare.

Using this technology, he said, physicians can measure and accurately analyze the heart as if they were looking at the real thing. "It's almost like you're doing an open surgery rather than having it on a display," he said.

As interventional procedures have grown more complicated, there's been a corresponding rise in demand for better, more accurate imaging techniques. It's no surprise, then, that Philips is investigating the use of virtual holography to visualize anatomy.

But what the measurable clinical benefits would be are still unclear. In fact, Meurs himself questioned whether virtual holography would bring more benefit to doctors than a 2-D image. "Quite honestly, at first I was myself even a bit skeptical — do you really get more information?" he said. However, he changed his mind after he saw the technology in action.

"The benefit is in accuracy and measurement — having access to even more information," he said. While he said the results are promising, he also stressed that the technology is far from being market-ready yet. The firm plans to engage in further clinical studies to develop the technology into a practical and clinical product.

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