Interactive medical visualization and simulation for multi-modal virtual learning

Images and their derivatives form the key learning components in medical education. Medical students and doctors learn to examine the human body through many different imaging modalities, which facilitate them to inspect the internal structure of human bodies. The recent developments of computer visualization technology meet the ever-growing need for doctors, surgeons, and medical students to gain valuable insight into human physiology and pathology. In this paper, we have developed a web-based interactive medical learning system with the advanced VR toolkit that supports 2D medical image sequence viewing, 3D visualization of both volume and surface datasets, visual magnification lens, and interactive deformable simulation of medical data in which the physical properties of human tissues are simulated by heuristic optimization against finite element model. The toolkit we have developed supports personalized 2D/3D visualizations, optimal learning and planning, and on-line interactive medical education.