VR Colonoscopy Can Help Clinicians Detect Abnormalities

Researchers at the University of Sheffield (Sheffield, UK) have developed a virtual reality (VR) colonoscopy that could help clinicians detect abnormalities in the digestive system. Using an Oculus Rift VR headset, the clinicians traveled inside a patient’s colon to view its mucosal surface, allowing them to explore the colon in real 3D instead of the 2D representation offered by conventional PC monitors. The work was developed through collaboration between the Medical Physics Group in IICD and the 3D Imaging Laboratory in the Medical Imaging and Medical Physics Directorate of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.

“Virtual colonoscopy examinations are labor intensive, typically taking 20 minutes for experienced radiologists and significantly longer for less experienced clinicians,” said David Randall from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease (IICD). “We hope that by performing this examination with VR technology offers potential improvements in efficiency and lesion detectability for virtual colonoscopy examinations.”

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