Precision VR™ visualization platform aids pediatric neurosurgery
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland is the first stand-alone children’s hospital to acquire the Precision Virtual Reality™ visualization platform by Surgical Theater.
Brain surgery can be a frightening prospect, and that’s even more true when a child must experience it.
In pediatric neurosurgery, it is very important to help young patients understand what they are going through. The new Precision Virtual Reality visualization platform recently acquired by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland is a new, state-of- the-art way of walking patients through what they can expect from treatment.
The VR technology allows the hospital’s neurosurgeons to show patients views of their anatomies, as well as the pathologies of their neurological conditions. This added knowledge can help patients and their families understand exactly what they will go through when treated, and can help them make decisions regarding the process as a whole.
Rather than simply looking at CT, MRI and DTI scans, the Precision Virtual Reality visualization takes these scans and applies them to a 3D space, allowing 360-degree movement using a virtual reality headset. The platform makes use of advanced fighter-jet flight simulation technology and combines it with these anatomical scans in order to make these images room-scale and navigable to patients and doctors using VR.
The opportunities afforded to doctors don’t stop there, however. Precision Virtual Reality allows doctors to plan ahead for surgery using this new technology, including planning surgical sequences and showing patients these plans.
This versatility allows doctors to show patients a close approximation of what they see in the operating room while performing procedures. In sharing this knowledge with patients, surgeons help alleviate the some of the stress and anxiety from the already stressful process of preparing for brain surgery.
Precision Virtual Reality was developed by Surgical Theater, a leader in healthcare services based around virtual and augmented reality. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland is a not-for- profit medical center and is rated one of the top children’s hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Reports. The hospital specializes in cancer, heart disease, neurological disorders, organ transplants, orthopedics and care for critically ill newborn babies.
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