Exploring the Heart
Role: UX Design + Developer | NYU Langone Medical Center | Tools: Unity, HTC Vive, Tilt Brush
Medicine through VR
'Exploring the Heart' is a Virtual Reality experience for 4th year medical students to review the anatomy of the Human Heart. This serves a bridge between cadaver study and flat 2-Dimensional illustrations in text books, by allowing them to see a beating human heart up close and also interact with it.
Project Goal
To test if Virtual Reality’s immersive nature can be valuable to Medical Students as a learning tool
Outcome
To design a medical VR experience that leverages the immersive nature of the Technology that can be tested with Medical Students and Professionals.
This animated 3-D Model illustrates the movement of the valves and the beating of the heart. Students will be able to interact with this mode using the HTC Vive to learn about the Cardiac Cycle.
My Responsibilities
How do medical students study?
Research
Have studied Anatomy in Detail
Need revision to prepare for USMLE
Use various learning resources to prepare
Spend a large amount on resources
Jess: A 4th Year Medical Student tries the app Organon VR for the first time.
Andy: A 4th Year Medical Student tries the app Organon VR for the first time.
Testing assumption that medical school students can benefit from VR
This technology has a lot of potential to improve visualizations for (medical) students and doctors
It was beneficial to see the organs from different angles and vasculature
It would be helpful to go deeper into the study of each organ for advanced studies
Shadowing Users to gather insights
Observed drawbacks in the current experience:
(a) Students gather around a single cadaver and it is possible that not all of them get a clear view of the organs
(b) During Anatomy dissection, the students meticulously remove the layer of fat beneath the skin to get to the organ they wish to observe which is tedious and time consuming
(c) Since the cadaver is static the student only gets a chance to see the organs functioning while working with a live patient
(d) Cadavers are preserved in embalming fluids that tend to reversible diminish the sense of smell.
How VR can solve for this:
-In VR they can see the organ individually, up-close.
- A digital model can resolve this.
- Students can see 3D animations that mimic live organ functioning.
- Exposure to the embalming fluids can be reduced by the digital experience.
Current Landscape of existing tools
During anatomy study, students use these textbooks as an 'Atlas' of the Human Body, and cross reference the organ with the diagram in the text book. They return to reference there textbooks years into their medical practice.
Insight from Research
If the anatomy of an organ and the physiological information about it can be demonstrated and made interactive using Virtual Reality, this would serve as an exceptional learning resource for the students
How can ‘Anatomy’ and ‘Physiology’ be combined in VR, to create a comprehensive experience?
Design
Medical students study Anatomy - the study of dissected organs and the separation of their parts, and Physiology - the study of how the organ functions. They study these from different text books and often struggle to co-relate the Physiological Information with the Anatomical Information.
I realized that it would be most beneficial for the medical students to be able to see the Anatomical Figure accompanied by, and in sync with the Physiological Information for that organ.
The information could be controlled through a User Interface that feels most natural for navigating through the information.
Rapid Prototyping
I used Google Tilt Brush to create a 3D Prototype/Storyboard for the VR Experience
Gif recorded in Tilt Brush
Demo Video
Recorded from the user’s perspective from within the VR headset.
User Testing and Feedback
Dr. Vicky from NYU School of Medicine
Professor for Anatomy
Feedback:
Found that the immersive property of the medium to look at the organ in VR would be helpful to her students
Ben, 4th Year Medical Student at NYU School of Medicine
4th Year student, Advanced Anatomy
Feedback:
Would like to see EKG information
Ability to scale model, and rewind the graphical information
Libby, 4th Year Medical Student at NYU School of Medicine
4th Year student, Advanced Anatomy
Feedback:
Would like to see EKG information and ability to rotate the heart model
Learning Outcome
To continue to improve the experience and make the Physiological information diegetic to the Anatomical model
Design it for different levels of complexity: 1st Year Medical students to 4th Year Students
Include 3D Scanned hearts for abnormalities