Medicine will see an enormous benifit from virtual reality. As shown in the millitary, virtual reality can provide an excellent training mechanism when there is no room for mistakes. Doctors will be able practice alone or in teams to fine tune their skills for highly sensitive operations without having to risk a human life. Virtual reality can improve the doctor's performance during operations by superimposing vital information on the patient duing an operation. Superimposed images will increase the effectiveness of radiation treatment and reduce the scarring of a surgery.

Training Medical Personnel

• allows medical students to practice real life operations giving them experience before they operate on a live human being
• gives surgeons a chance to sharpen there skills and practice team work with other surgeons

Assisting Doctors Performing Surgery

• a head-mounted equipment would be worn by the doctor that could overlay his real life vision with virtual images
• allows doctor to see things that were previously invisible
• the patient would be monitored by a computer that could feed data into doctor's head equipment
• would be used for chemotherapy when doctors have to direct an intense beam of radiation at a tumor
• the position of the tumor would be superimposed on the patients body through visualization techniques
• optimal incision lines could also be virtually displayed on the patient to minimize scarring

Links

Virtual Reality in Medicine