Feasibility for Virtual Surgery in Remote Areas of Queensland

Running head: FEASIBILITY FOR VIRTUAL SURGERY IN REMOTE AREAS OF QUEENSLAND 1
FEASIBILITY FOR VIRTUAL SURGERY IN REMOTE AREAS OF QUEENSLAND
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FEASIBILITY FOR VIRTUAL SURGERY IN REMOTE AREAS OF QUEENSLAND 2
Abstract
The challenge of offering quality surgical procedure to people living in the remote areas of
Queensland can be discouraging. The residents of this remote area of Queensland are usually
vulnerable in terms of both health access and status, due to that there is need to highlighting the
need for innovation in how the surgical procedures are being carried out. Among the computer
simulators for the virtual surgery are the virtual reality and the virtual environment that have not
been used in professional surgery but in many cases they have been employed into surgical
education and surgical training. Most of the surgeons who are professionally trained believe that
the kind of technology will offer great benefit for the surgical education. The greatest challenge
regarding to the application of this technology in the professional surgery is absence of
information concerning the augmented reality fields and the virtual reality. Main aim of
feasibility study is to point out the difficulties to establish this technology and create a strategic
plan about the feasibility which focuses on the total cost in creation of the whole network around
the remote areas of Queensland. The 3D feature of the imagery simplifies the surgeon’s process
of planning and enhances the accurateness of the entire surgery, while it achieves its main goal
of having surgery procedures that are safe.
Table of Contents

FEASIBILITY FOR VIRTUAL SURGERY IN REMOTE AREAS OF QUEENSLAND 3
Abstract............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Study Background...........................................................................................................................4
Study aims and objectives...............................................................................................................5
Significance of the study.................................................................................................................6
Literature review..............................................................................................................................7
Virtual reality application in surgery...............................................................................................7
Education and training.....................................................................................................................7
Surgical planning.............................................................................................................................9
Image guidance..............................................................................................................................10
Tale surgery...................................................................................................................................11
Virtual surgery simulation.............................................................................................................11
What is a virtual surger simulator?................................................................................................12
Significance of virtual reality in the fields of surgery...................................................................14
Case study......................................................................................................................................15
Virtual surgery in Hamburg Germany...........................................................................................15
Virtual reality in Stanford medicine..............................................................................................16
Discussions....................................................................................................................................17
How virtual surgery will increase its use in remote areas of Queensland.....................................17
How top surgeons in the remote areas of Queensland will operate with very minimal errors
occurring........................................................................................................................................18
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
FEASIBILITY FOR VIRTUAL SURGERY IN REMOTE AREAS OF QUEENSLAND

FEASIBILITY FOR VIRTUAL SURGERY IN REMOTE AREAS OF QUEENSLAND 4
Introduction
The applications of modern technology are well developed for all fields like medicine, military
and industry among others. Mixed reality (MR) is the latest application of modern technology
that is applied in medicine. It can be defined as the merging of the real and the virtual world.
Virtual reality encompasses technology that has the ability to allow its users to intermingle with
environments that are computer-simulated (Swennen, 2016). Currently the environments of
virtual reality are very important because they allow users to interact with audio or videos by use
of the tactile sensors.
Virtual environments and virtual reality are amongst the computer simulators for the virtual
surgery that have not used in the field of professional surgery but in most cases they are
incorporated into surgical training and surgery education. Majority of the surgeons who are
professional greatly believe that the kind of technology will be beneficial for the education of
surgery. Greatest challenge regarding to the application of this technology in the professional
surgery is inefficient info concerning the augmented reality fields and the virtual reality. Virtual
reality technology is currently being used widely in medicine mostly for teaching purposes
where by students are trained in the virtual environment formerly carrying out actual surgery to
the victims (Chowdhury, 2011). Generally virtual surgery is a virtual reality method of
shamming surgery procedure that greatly assist surgeons in enhancing the surgery in planning
process and be able to exercise surgery process on the available 3D models.
Situations of virtual surgery have a simulated model of a human being that feels, responds which
has been developed for the purpose of being operated on by the surgeons. The outcomes from the
replicated model can be assessed before the actual surgery is conducted on the patient. The above
practice greatly helps the surgeons to get a clear picture of the surgeries final outcome. In the

FEASIBILITY FOR VIRTUAL SURGERY IN REMOTE AREAS OF QUEENSLAND 5
situations where the surgeons find errors, he or she can correct the errors by repeating the
surgical process as many spells as possible then be able to finalize the parameters for a good
surgical outcome (Thalmann, 2013).
In the virtual surgery the surgeons have the ability to have a look at the human anatomy from
varying ranges of angles. The procedure that can’t be carried out on the real patient, the process
aids the surgeons to be accurate in cutting, incision, increase experience and hence improving the
skills in surgery. The moment the actual surgery is conducted, the surgeon is already familiar
with all the specific operations that are to be carried out because virtual surgery is based on the
patients’ specific model.
Fig 1: An implementation of the virtual surgery
Study Background
Many aspects in the fields of medicine and surgery will feel a great change. The improvement in
the computing have greatly enabled nonstop growing in the visualization, simulation and and
virtual reality technologies.

FEASIBILITY FOR VIRTUAL SURGERY IN REMOTE AREAS OF QUEENSLAND 6
The idea of virtual surgery grew out of a video game as means of educating surgeons and
simulating surgical procedures. Video games for the purpose of entertainment has been used by
large industries globally for a long period. Nevertheless, as early as the 1980s, some companies
like the Atari began operating on the idea of virtual surgery. The young trainees in the field of
medicine showed a greater eye-hand coordination and having quick thinking abilities over those
who had never played the video games for simulation. Although during those times the graphics
were extremely limited, the Atari Company started increasing numerous styles of simulators
regarding health care. The kind of exercise was met with solid skeptism until studies in the mid-
1980s started to show that the idea had some potential (Seidel, 2017).
Nevertheless, interactive graphic limitations of the video games held up their usefulness and
development till the late 1990s, when some companies such as Sony and Nintendo started to
generate 3D polygon graphics to generate the concept of virtual reality. This was enhanced with
the introduction of Wii system which allowed more realistic manipulation of the virtual realities
via motion sensors (Hoffman, 2017). The studies that were carried out during this times showed
that the modern interaction technique enhanced coordination and space perception. This
advancement also permitted the technology to move from the video game to a simulator.
Davinci surgical system programmed their first simulator
Study aims and objectives
The main aim of the feasibility study is to point out the difficulties to establish this technology
and create a strategic plan about the feasibility which focuses on the total cost in creation of the
whole network around the remote areas of Queensland. With that some specific objectives were
set to aid in achieving the main aim of the study some of the objectives include;