Digital Twin Operating Rooms for Virtual Reality Applications

Value Proposition

• Artificial surgical training environments that are more reflective and realistic to surgical suites.
• More immersive surgical training using advanced virtual reality technology.
• Easy ability to create these environments for users since they can be constructed from casually acquired videos, such as from smartphones.

Unmet Need

• One example unmet need/application area – Operating Room Configuration: Careful surgical planning before a procedure is paramount to ensuring good clinical outcomes, patient safety, and operational efficiency, especially when techniques or devices are being used for the first time. The complexity of operating rooms is increasing with the rise of specialized robotic and surgical tools. However, the ability to spatially plan and practice surgeries in advance is a challenge for many stakeholders. These individuals may not be physically present due to the nature of their busy schedules and targeted spaces may be unavailable due to the high demand and cost of ORs. The proper execution depends on the particular setup of each unique operating room. Therefore, there is a need for development of technologies to enable virtual spatial planning and exploration in a realistic scenario with relevant objects, such as virtual reality (VR).

Technology Description

• Current software solutions for creating high visual fidelity immersive VR environments are limited by costly and labor-intensive adoptions, preventing adaptation to new needs, techniques, or machines. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a high quality, immersive digital twins of complex medical environments, such as operating rooms, trauma bays, emergency rooms, and more hospital setups, that is calculated / derived from casual video capture, such as from smartphone. This groundbreaking technology utilizes automated neural rendering-based methods to allows physicians to plan and practice surgical workflows, enabling better outcomes and efficiency. Data has validated the ability of this device to provide value to surgical training over other virtual environments.

Stage of Development

• A working prototype has been completed, demonstrating superiority over virtual environments with less realism.
• Current efforts focus on human subjects research continuing to validate the utility and value of the product.

Data Availability

• Data available upon request.

Publication

Kleinbeck, Constantin et al. “Neural digital twins: reconstructing complex medical environments for spatial planning in virtual reality.” International journal of computer assisted radiology and surgery vol. 19,7 (2024): 1301-1312. doi:10.1007/s11548-024-03143-w