Many hospitals in Shenzhen have taken the lead in trying the application of virtual reality technology in the medical field, which has caused widespread concern. In the interview, the reporter learned that although the progress of virtual reality technology in the medical field has received much attention and optimism in recent years, the current virtual reality technology in the domestic medical field is still in the initial research and development stage, and has not yet reached the clinical medical level application.

However, many Shenzhen doctors who are engaged in the application of virtual technology in the medical field have told reporters that with the more precise and mature algorithm and the popularization of 5G technology, virtual reality technology is expected to benefit more doctors and patients.

Recently, MR technology combined with 5G telemedicine case has received much attention. The 5G network makes the transmission of images and audio no longer have to worry about the problem of Caton. In the future, will MR be combined with AI, 5G and other black technologies to achieve unmanned surgery?

Basically in the early stage of research and development

Although virtual reality technology has been around for many years, the current auxiliary application in medical treatment is still a new thing. In the past two years, it has only been explored in a small number of hospitals in China. In 2015, Microsoft released the wearable AR device HoloLens to promote the application of virtual reality technology in various fields. The holographic navigation platform launched by Scopis, based in Berlin, Germany, uses Hololens heads to provide more accurate and rapid surgical guidance for surgery, and has now helped doctors perform more than 10,000 operations. The reporter learned that virtual reality technology is currently used in teaching and explaining the condition to patients in China. The application of assisted surgery is still at the forefront of the preliminary research stage.

"VR is characterized by a strong sense of immersion, which is very important in teaching. For example, in the earthquake, fire site to do heart resuscitation, because psychological interference, will definitely affect the play, scene-based learning is an important angle." Beijing Shi Yu, director of the three directors of the university and chief physician of the Department of Ultrasound, said: "The advantage of VR medical education is also to save training costs. Students can have more opportunities to simulate hands-on. Digital content has the ability to replicate and expand, which is more conducive to propagation."

However, the promotion and application of virtual technology in the medical field is still limited by many conditions. The first is the scarcity of comprehensive talent. Involving multidisciplinary fields requires professionals who understand both hardware, algorithms, and medical backgrounds. "At present, the relevant talents in the comprehensive knowledge background are still very scarce. At the same time, the application development cost of virtual technology in medical treatment and how to measure its benefits are also the key to its sustainability." Shi Yu said.

The sustainability of the application of virtual reality technology in medical institutions is one of the key issues for doctors who are developing related projects. Shi Yu introduced that the project is currently jointly developed with a virtual reality technology company in Shenzhen to establish a virtual service platform for virtual reality clinical applications in Shenzhen. It is hoped that an innovative and commercial operation mode will be implemented to achieve platform self-financing and continuous expansion.

The first fund for the project of the rehabilitation department of the rehabilitation department of the Nanfang Medical University Shenzhen Hospital came from the science and technology fund he obtained during his time at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The problems he is currently facing are not only the development of the project itself, but also the continuous investment of the project funds.

The crisis indicates that the current application of VR for rehabilitation is still in the research and development stage. Whether the traditional training combined with the virtual environment game's rehabilitation effect is better than the traditional training method still requires further large sample research. But he is very optimistic about the application of virtual technology in the field of rehabilitation. “In the context of tight medical resources, low-cost virtual environment games make them widely available in the community and even in patient families.”

Algorithm and precision are still the current challenges

Virtual reality technology is increasingly recognized for improving the efficiency and safety of medical procedures.

Taking MR as an example of orthopedic surgery, the patient is lying on the hospital bed. In the operating room, the body part of the doctor first saw blood and flesh, but the bones could not be seen visually, and it was not known where the tumor grew. "MR technology completely covers the 3D stereoscopic image of bones and blood vessels and the part of the patient's surgery. The tumor can be cut off against the image."

Fang Guofang, deputy director of the Department of Orthopaedics, Shenzhen Medical Hospital, Nanfang University, explained: "Not only does it have a high degree of bone shape, but even dense blood vessels are present. MR technology is more precise and instructive. Doctors can understand how to avoid important blood vessels during surgery. Nerve tissue."

"In the past, surgeons had to use their own experience to convert these two-dimensional models into three-dimensional information in their minds. Doctors to construct stereoscopic images would cause errors. It would greatly facilitate doctors to plan surgery." Peking University Shenzhen Hospital Neurosurgery Attending Physician Yang Hongchun told reporters.

During the interview, many doctors told reporters that the current virtual display technology is only a supplementary reference for medical treatment, and there is still a big gap between clinical application requirements. Medicine is an extremely rigorous industry, and the use of virtual technology to build realistic medical models requires a high degree of precision.

The accuracy of 3D stereoscopic images is the key to surgery. The reporter learned that the accuracy of the 3D model depends on the accuracy of the pre-operative, intraoperative and CT scan reconstruction, and the accuracy of the reconstruction depends on the algorithm. "There is no unified standard in terms of algorithms. Is it faster and more important, or is it more important? How can mathematical algorithms be implemented quickly and accurately, and it is still a challenge." Fang Guofang said.

Unmanned surgery can be expected? Manual correction is still needed

The reporter learned that the current telemedicine of MR technology is mainly used in orthopedics, hepatobiliary surgery, appendectomy, and various technologies are currently auxiliary, and they are not up to the clinical medical level. Even so, the application of related technologies is more cautious for difficult and high-risk surgery in departments such as neurosurgery.

The current preoperative planning for 3D navigation applied to neurosurgery not only indicates the location of the tumor in green, but also visually senses the distribution of nerve fibers, where the language center of the patient is, to help the doctor determine the location of the tumor during the actual operation, and Need to protect the blood vessels and nerve tissue. "You can understand how to remove the tumor in the least damage and the closest way to the cerebral cortex." Yang Hongchun, a physician at the Department of Neurosurgery, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, told the reporter: "In the operation, the 3D stereoscopic brain tissue image displayed under the microscope is for the doctor to perform surgery. Important reference basis."

But the pre-planning work of 3D navigation is done by a team of doctors. It usually takes five or six hours to do a craniotomy, but it takes twenty or thirty hours to plan for 3D navigation. “In the 3D navigation modeling system, AI will also distinguish the extent of the lesion according to the density of the image, but it is often different from the real situation.” “Doctors must make corrections according to their own judgment. The gap of one millimeter often determines the patient. Future language features."

At the same time, how to deal with the interference factors in reality is also unsolvable by virtual reality technology. "For example, if the patient's position changes and the breathing is slightly urgent, it will affect the matching of the digital model with the actual situation of the patient. Virtual reality can only be used as an auxiliary means, and experienced doctors are still the decisive factor for the smooth progress of the operation." Say.

"The degree of precision in surgery is much higher than that of robots, and people have the ability to self-correct. When they encounter variations, they will stop at any time. The machine is still very 'stupid'. After the patient's position changes, if it is still set according to the original setting. The operation of the data will bring certain risks. How to report the important organizational structure during the operation? How to avoid damage to important tissues and organs? How to overcome this problem and establish a positive feedback mechanism is also the direction that researchers are working hard now." Fang Guofang told reporters that this is also one of the research directions of the digital orthopedic research team of Southern Medical University. (Reporter Bao Wenjuan)

Source: Guangzhou Daily

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