Virtual Medicine

Life extends beyond the boundaries of our skin. We are a whirling field of energies, which modern instruments can easily detect and measure. This opens the door to many exciting and revolutionary ways to diagnose and treat illness, including the use of interactive electronics.

A leading doctor unveils the groundbreaking potential of virtual medicine. Brennan Spiegel has spent years studying the medical power of the mind, and in VRx he reveals a revolutionary new kind of care: virtual medicine. It offers the possibility of treating illnesses without solely relying on intrusive surgeries or addictive opioids. Virtual medicine works by convincing your body that it's somewhere, or something, it isn't. It's affordable, widely available, and has already proved effective against everything from burn injuries to stroke to PTSD. Spiegel shows how a simple VR headset lets a patient with schizophrenia confront the demon in his head, how dementia patients regain function in a life-size virtual town, and how vivid simulations of patients' experiences are making doctors more empathic. VRx is a revelatory account of the connection between our bodies and ourselves. In an age of overmedication and depersonalized care, it offers no less than a new way to heal.

Magical describes conditions that are outside our understanding of cause and effect. Even in modern societies, magic-based explanations are powerful because, given the complexity of the universe, there are so many opportunities to use them. The history of medicine is defined by progress in understanding the human body - from magical explanations to measurable results. To continue medical progress, physicians and scientists must openly question traditional models. For thirteen years, MMVR has been an incubator for technologies that create new medical understanding via the simulation, visualization, and extension of reality. Researchers create imaginary patients because they offer a more reliable and controllable experience to the novice surgeon. With imaging tools, reality is purposefully distorted to reveal to the clinician what the eye alone cannot see. Robotics and intelligence networks allow the healer's sight, hearing, touch, and judgment to be extended across distance, as if by magic. The moments when scientific truth is suddenly revealed after lengthy observation, experimentation, and measurement is the real magic. These moments are not miraculous, however. book.

The remarkable accomplishments of the IT industry and the Internet are trickling steadily into healthcare. This series provides more effective healthcare at a lower overall cost, driven by cheaper and better computers.

In the early 1990s, a small group of individuals recognized how virtual reality (VR) could transform medicine by immersing physicians, students and patients in data more completely. Technical obstacles delayed progress but VR is now enjoying a renaissance, with breakthrough applications available for healthcare. This book presents papers from the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 22 conference, held in Los Angeles, California, USA, in April 2016. Engineers, physicians, scientists, educators, students, industry, military, and futurists participated in its creative mix of unorthodox thinking and validated investigation. The topics covered include medical simulation and modeling, imaging and visualization, robotics, haptics, sensors, physical and mental rehabilitation tools, and more. Providing an overview of the state-of-the-art, this book will interest all those involved in medical VR and in innovative healthcare, generally.

We humans are tribal, grouping ourselves by a multitude of criteria: physical, intellectual, political, emotional, etc. The Internet and its auxiliary technologies have enabled a novel dimension in tribal behavior during our recent past. This growing connectivity begs the question: will individuals and their communities come together to solve some very urgent global problems? At MMVR, we explore ways to harness information technology to solve healthcare problems - and in the industrialized nations we are making progress. In the developing world however, things are more challenging. Massive urban poverty fuels violence and misery. Will global networking bring a convergence of individual and tribal problem-solving? Recently, a barrel-shaped water carrier that rolls along the ground was presented, improving daily life for many people. Also the One Laptop per Child project is a good example of how the industrialized nations can help the developing countries. They produce durable and simple laptops which are inexpensive to produce. At MMVR, we focus on cutting-edge medical technology, which is generally pretty expensive. While the benefits of innovation trickle downward, from the privileged few to the broader masses, we should expand this trickle into a flood. Can breakthrough applications in stimulation, visualization, robotics, and informatics engender tools as ingeniously as the water carrier or laptop? With some extra creativity, we can design better healthcare for the developing world too.

Medicine is Art Medicine is supported by Science Medicine is enabled by Technology One will learn how leading-edge technology will affect the future of medical and surgical practice by improving access, quality, and continuity of care, while reducing cost. Contributors to the book are the world s leading researchers and developers in the field. Readers: Physicians, Surgeons, Information Scientists, Biomedical Professionals, Corporate Futurists, Biomechanical Engineers, Educators, Roboticists, Medical Technologists, Rehabilitation Specialists, Systems Integrators/Engineers, Psychotherapists/Behaviourists.

Since the debut of the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) conference in 1992, MMVR has served as a forum for researchers harnessing IT advances for the benefit of patient diagnosis and care, medical education and procedural training. At MMVR, virtual reality becomes a theatre for medicine, where multiple senses are engaged - sight, sound and touch - and language and image fuse. Precisely because this theatre is unreal, it is a valuable tool: the risks of experimentation and failure are gone, while the opportunity to understand remains. Improvement of this tool, through steady technological progress, is the purpose of MMVR. This book presents papers delivered at the MMVR18 / NextMed conference, held in Newport Beach, California, in February 2011, with contributions from international researchers whose work creates new devices and methods at the juncture of informatics and medicine. Subjects covered include simulation and learning, visualization and information-guided therapy, robotics and haptics, virtual reality and advanced ICT in Europe, validation of new surgical techniques, and many other applications of virtual-reality technology. As its name suggests, the NextMed conference looks forward to the expanding role that virtual reality can play in global healthcare. This overview of current technology will interest those who dedicate themselves to improving medicine through technology.