News | Virtual and Augmented Reality | December 04, 2020

Interactive VR models complement 3-D printing as a faster, low-cost solution for remote planning and collaboration

Interactive VR models complement 3D printing as a faster, low-cost solution for remote planning and collaboration

December 4, 2020 — Materialise NV, a global leader in medical 3-D printing software and services, introduced its new Mimics VR Viewer at the RSNA Annual Meeting (RSNA20), bringing virtual reality (VR) capabilities to its popular 3-D modeling platform.

Medical research in VR technologies has rapidly expanded in recent years, especially for the purposes of education and training, patient engagement, physician communication and anatomy visualization. This research, combined with hardware improvements and cost reductions, have led to an expanded medical market for VR applications.

The VR environment in the Mimics Viewer provides clinicians with a complement to 3-D printed anatomical models, allowing for faster and lower-cost visualization through more interactive models for planning, education and communication.

“3-D printed anatomical models continue to provide irreplaceable value for doctors in the planning and communication of complex cases,” said Bryan Crutchfield, vice president and general manager, Materialise North America. “As VR technologies become more seamless, the technology will have an important complementary role as a faster, low cost option for interactive models. The interactive nature of a VR environment opens new doors for planning, education and communication and allow physicians to easily address more complex cases through personalized planning.”

Existing VR applications have been limited by factors such as the technical training needed to implement the workflow and requirements to tether headsets to a dedicated computer and physical space, which limit opportunities to collaborate. The VR experience within the Mimics Viewer is the first to remove tethering restrictions to ensure compatibility across multiple VR devices on the market today. This feature enables multiple viewers to access the VR experience remotely, while eliminating the need for a physical lab space dedicated to VR technology. By removing the tethering requirement, VR becomes a more accessible tool for collaborative planning and communication.

Throughout Materialise’s 30-year history in medical 3-D printing and planning, the company has leveraged emerging hardware innovations, like VR, to improve solutions for clinicians. With the new VR environment within the Mimics Viewer, clinicians can access a digital tool to create models with improved depth and proportion perception for personalized treatments.

Medical organizations that have already invested in the digital workflows for segmenting medical images for 3D printing can use this technology to extend their digital models to VR headsets.  The Mimics Viewer will require no extra software installation and the user will be able to access cases directly in a secure browser environment.

Registered attendees at the RSNA Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, taking place virtually from November 29 – December 5, 2020, can learn more by visiting Materialise’s virtual exhibit.


Related Content

News | Cardiac Imaging

April 30, 2025 – Viz.ai, the leader in AI-powered disease detection and intelligent care coordination, has launched Viz ...

Time May 02, 2025
arrow
News | X-Ray

May 01, 2025 — Researchers from the Rajpurkar Lab in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School ...

Time May 01, 2025
arrow
News | Lung Imaging

April, 15, 2025 — Optellum has entered an agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb to leverage AI in early diagnosis and ...

Time April 17, 2025
arrow
News | Breast Imaging

March 20, 2025 — GE HealthCare has launched Invenia Automated Breast Ultrasound (ABUS) Premium, the latest 3D ultrasound ...

Time March 21, 2025
arrow
News | Computed Tomography (CT)

Feb. 25, 2025 —Stratasys Ltd. and Siemens Healthineers recently presented the results of a joint research effort that ...

Time March 04, 2025
arrow
News | Artificial Intelligence

Feb. 4, 2025 — Riverain Technologies recently announced it expanded across eight countries in 2024 and added nearly 50 ...

Time February 04, 2025
arrow
News | Ultrasound Imaging

Jan. 28, 2025 — GE HealthCare recently announced it has received 510(k) clearance from the United States Food and Drug ...

Time January 29, 2025
arrow
News | Artificial Intelligence

Dec. 12, 2024 — At RSNA 2024, Careverse officially made its debut, exhibiting in the AI Showcase area, sharing its ...

Time December 18, 2024
arrow
News | Breast Imaging

Dec.11, 2024 — iCAD, Inc., a provider of clinically proven AI-powered cancer detection solutions, recently announced ...

Time December 18, 2024
arrow
News | Artificial Intelligence

Dec. 17, 2024 — Radin Health, a provider of advanced radiology AI-Powered solutions, highlighted its All-in-One ...

Time December 18, 2024
arrow
Subscribe Now