The Society of Interventional Radiology debuted a virtual reality 360 (VR360) training video showcasing interventional radiology in practice, during SIR’s Annual Scientific Meeting in Los Angeles.
The one-hour multi-segment movie was a special project of its peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR), and its editor-in-chief, Ziv J Haskal, M.D., FSIR, a professor with the department of radiology and medical imaging at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville. It was funded by an innovation grant from JVIR publisher Elsevier.
“Interventional radiology has always been on the forefront of modern medicine and VR360 is the cutting-edge of medical simulation, so this project embodies the innovative spirit of our specialty,” said Haskal. “We took one of the hardest procedures we perform and created an all-enveloping, in-the-room VR film allowing an operating physician to return to any complex segment they wish for learning, review and perspective.”
The VR 360 video shows Haskal and his colleagues at the University of Virginia Health System performing a TIPS procedure in which they created a new blood vessel within the liver using tiny catheters, balloons and stents under image guidance.
“The immersive nature of VR, particularly when viewed in a VR viewer, heralds a sea change in complex medical training,” said Haskal. “The multicamera shoot and floating high-definition inserts offers viewers every perspective of the case, maximizing learning.”
Haskal is already planning next-generation VR projects to educate patients, trainees and attending physicians about interventional radiology.
