High-fidelity Virtual Reality Trainer for Orthognathic Surgery

Kitware, Inc., Clifton Park NY

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY The surgical community is making an active effort to develop new approaches to surgical training in order to compensate for limits in work hours, improve outcomes for patients, and improving the efficiency of learning minimizing the risks for the patients. Virtual Reality (VR) surgical simulators hold enormous potential in improving the efficiency of learning , allow for unlimited practice and rehearsal of surgical procedures and have been demonstrated to impart skills that transfer to the operating room. We propose to develop a VR?based Oral and Maxillofacial (OMF) surgical trainer for OMF surgeons and residents that can improve procedural knowledge and surgical proficiency. The work proposed will a) develop a highly realistic VR training system in order to recreate, as reliably as possible, the visual, haptic/tactile, ergonomic, procedural and functional aspects of OMS surgery and b) perform face, content, and construct validation of the OMF VR surgery training system. The proposed system will allow OMF surgeons to enhance their training in few targeted complex steps in sagittal split osteotomy (SSO) in a virtual environment and predict the outcome of interventional decisions before actual surgery without any risks to the patients. Practicing surgical techniques on-demand with direct quantitative feedback plays an essential part in developing the needed expertise to a) improve the quality of the outcomes for patients and b) improve efficiency in the surgical technique thereby reducing the operating time. Virtual simulation platforms provide risk-free training environment that has a huge potential to increase the efficiency of surgical training. Successful completion of this Phase I proposal will result in a Phase II SBIR proposal focused on the clinical validation of the effectiveness of this system as a training tool for OMF surgery residents to practice the complex steps in SSO.