Virtual Reality: Current Uses in Medical Simulation and Future Opportunities & Medical Technologies that VR can Exploit in Education and Training

Virtual reality has gone from research to educational tool to indispensible clinical application in patient care. A brief review of the current status of the use of VR in medicine will provide the springboard for the current gaps that provide future opportunities in simulation as well as an introduction to new advanced technologies that are revolutionizing medicine and which will require VR for educational and training support and clinical applications. Some topics for discussion are virtual patients, cadavers and autopsies, surgical rehearsal, robotic surgery, suspended animation, regeneration and tissue engineering. The challenge: how creatively can VR support these incredible new technologies? The grand challenge (n) over tilde how will 3-D stereolithography revolutionize the practice of medicine? Have you bought your Makerbot yet?