SimVis Medical - Surgical Training

The aim of this research is to provide a realistic and cost effective computer-based training environment in which surgeons can practice and evaluate their skills.

VEKATS  - Virtual Environments Knee Arthroscopy Training System

This project concerns the development of an effective training system for trainee orthopaedic surgeons to gain practice in the skills required for arthroscopic procedures.  The project aims to exploit computer modelling and simulation to immerse the trainee in a synthetic world of mathematically described hard and soft tissue with pseudo instruments registered to the synthetic world, enhanced with video clips taken from actual operations. Interaction with the final system will be through emulation of the surgical instruments with limited force-feedback to allow haptic simulation.

A study using VE-KATS involving Orthopaedic Surgical Trainees has shown it is both viable and more effective than existing training methods.

Details: VE-KATS

A Virtual Environment Eye Surgery Training System

This project concerns the development of a viable and effective prototype training system, using Virtual Reality techniques for surgical trainees to learn the skills required for eye surgery.  In particular, the system will focus on providing both visual and haptic cues of the internal structure of the eye, allowing training in vitreoretinal surgery.

A Virtual Environment Ankle Surgery Training System

This project concerns the development of the VE-KATS system into a training system suitable for ankle surgery.  In particular, the system will focus on visual aspects of providing an effective Virtual Reality trainer.

A Generic Virtual Environment Surgery Training System

This project concerns the development of the generic training system suitable for a range of orthopaedic surgical procedures.

Force Feedback in Medical Training Systems

In many medical applications, a surgeon relies upon both visual and haptic feedback to complete an operation successfully. Although current computer workstations can portray excellent graphical images, the production of precise force-feedback, suitable for medical applications, is still in its infancy. This project aims to develop a small, accurate force-feedback device suitable for training minimally invasive techniques and validate its effectiveness through a demonstration training system.  A study of arthroscopic keyhole operations on pig specimens has enabled us to gather the force profiles of the surgical tools.

Details: VE-KATS Haptic Data

Psychological assessment for VE training systems

The effectiveness of any training system is difficult to assess.  This project aims to develop a scoring scheme to assess a trainee surgeon in performing a knee arthroscopy.  The scoring scheme is to be integrated with VE-KATS in providing automatic assessment of a trainee's capabilities.  This is a collaborative project with the Psychology Department.

Future Activity

Further work on haptic feedback and soft tissue modelling.  Research on training systems will be progressed by developing a flexible architecture based on a software/hardware core with optional courseware and haptic feedback devices.  This will provide a unified and extensible approach for producing both low-cost basic training system and advanced expensive systems.