NA-MIC Project Weeks

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Development of a virtual reality and haptic training simulation for ultrasound-guided catheter insertion

Key Investigators

• Naomi Catwell (ÉTS, Canada)
• Simon Drouin (ÉTS, Canada)
• Rafael Palomar (Oslo University Hospital, Norway)
• Steve Pieper (Isomics, Inc., United States)

Project Description

Context Ultrasound-guided IV catheter insertion is the most commonly performed medical procedure in hospitals. However, it has been associated with high complication rates. Virtual reality and haptic enabled simulations may improve training for such a procedure. The aim of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of haptic feedback for ultrasound-guided peripheral IV insertion training in a virtual reality simulation.

Current state A virtual reality training and evaluation simulator equipped with real-time ultrasound image rendering and a haptic force feedback model has been developed with Unity and two Haply Robotics Inverse3 devices.

Project Week In the context of Project Week, the aim is to improve the simulation with skin deformation physics using SOFA-Slicer. This would improve perception of depth and identification of the needle insertion point in the virtual environment.

Objective

1. Integration of SOFA-Slicer Project into the Unity simulation
2. Simulation of believable skin deformation with SOFA physics

Approach and Plan

1. Get a working version of a recent SOFA-Slicer version on Windows. See this forked version of Slicer-SOFA and lungsimple.py sample project
2. Re-integrate SOFA with the existing simulation - use SOFA version 24.12
3. Define an interactive SOFA configuration file to simulate forearm skin deformation in Unity
4. Integrate a version of Slicer-SOFA into the Slicer configuration file of the simulation
5. Work with SOFA-Slicer project team

Progress and Next Steps

Development

1.Explored multiple strategies (Cosserat Strategy, SlicerSOFA Strategy, Shader Deformation Strategy, etc.)

1. Hooking the Unity simulation up to IGT directly in Slicer to use the Grid transform method

2. Send the updated deformed mesh continuously back to Unity using PolyData message

3. Test to see if the ultrasound image is deformed appropriately
4. Apply the deformation upon needle insertion as well
5. User testing

Pilot testing

1. Success in getting enough people for the mini-longitudinal pilot test
2. Lots of great feedback (thanks!)
3. Need more people for the short pilot test for needle deviation strategies (come try the simulation!)

Illustrations

“Analytical approximation” of probe-tissue interaction to experiment with tissue displacement, using this code developed during Project Week. While this method is not physically realistic, it represents a real-time approximation that may be adapted for use in training systems. A more complex simulation can possibly make use of the linear and nonlinear transformation hierarchy worked out in this example.

Background and References

Project Week 41 - familiarisation with SOFA and a first integration of SOFA into Unity