Virtual reality, telemedicine and beyond

Virtual Reality (VR) is the technology that allows its users to become immersed in a computer generated virtual world. Virtual reality includes the technology for three dimensional (3-D) displays, methods for generating virtual images including 3-D modeling and techniques for orienting the user in the virtual world. Medicine is one of the major application areas for virtual reality, along with games and scientific visualisation. The medical application of VR was stimulated initially by the need of medical staff to visualise complex medical data, particularly during surgery and for surgery planning, and for medical education and training. These applications have naturally extended to include telemedicine and collaboration, involving sharing information across individual medical staff and across geographical locations. Surgery-related applications of VR fall mainly into three classes: open surgery, endoscopy, and radiosurgery. The aim of this paper is to describe some examples in these research fields.