Virtual reality has put us in the cockpit of a fighter jet, inside a video game, and even on the moon.
But perhaps its most meaningful exploration is happening inside the human body: the heart.
At Cincinnati Children’s, heart surgeons using a Virtual Reality Surgical Simulation Suite (VR3S) have revolutionized the way pediatric heart surgeries are planned, taught, and understood.
Surgeons can “fly through” individualized 3D models of children’s hearts before ever going into the operating room. Each 3D model is based on actual scans from patients, ensuring an anatomically accurate depiction of their individual heart.
Doctors can zoom in, rotate, and explore the inside of the chambers, gaining a perspective that is impossible with traditional surgery.
Pediatric cardiologist Ryan Moore, MD, and congenital heart surgeon David Morales, MD, led the suite’s development nearly a decade ago.
“Even though I’ve been doing this for more than two decades, a child is born with something I’ve never seen before,” Morales said in an interview. “In the OR, you can’t look at the heart from a different angle or behind it. Our ability to see things now that we’ve never really seen before is what’s allowing us to push the field forward.”
New opportunities in cardiac care
Video game developers, animators, and coders worked alongside surgeons to create the innovative platform.
Through a VR headset and handheld controllers, heart surgeons can place valves and medical devices and practice complex techniques on the patient’s heart. Screens display the digital heart in three dimensions.
A few weeks before a complex surgery, Morales spends time walking through a heart, gaining a 360-degree view and planning approaches, creating virtual pathways, and anything else to help prepare.
“Once in surgery, there are rarely any surprises or deviations from our plan,” Morales said. “In fact, the VR session almost always helps us understand the patient’s anatomy better than we could have with traditional medical imaging alone.”
The VR3S is used to plan about 10% of all heart surgeries and about 30% of complex surgeries at Cincinnati Children’s. The technology has allowed surgeons to perform a single operation on complex heart patients who may have previously been expected to need multiple surgeries.
Capabilities for worldwide digital collaboration
The goal is to enhance medical outcomes and improve access to advanced health technologies for patients worldwide. In low-resourced countries, tens of thousands of children die from non-complex heart defects.
Virtual reality has offered more than just visual aid. It is changing surgical planning and team collaboration. Doctors across the globe can now virtually meet inside the same 3D heart, regardless of location.
“The easiest way to spread knowledge worldwide is to put it on a gaming network, which streams complex, three-dimensional images to remote places in real-time,” Moore said. “With just a VR headset and internet access, we can collaborate with health care teams to help them plan an upcoming surgery.”
VR3S allows communication and real-time translation in 10 different languages, including creating voice-to-text annotations. Cincinnati Children’s is partnering with technology companies to increase internet access and bandwidth capacities in lower-resourced areas.
Encouragement for families
The technology also gives some hope and relief to families.
Parents can put on VR headsets and explore their child’s heart as clinicians guide them through the valves and arteries. Teams of doctors help families understand complex conditions and reduce stress and anxiety.
“A mom told us this was the first time she ever understood her child’s heart condition,” Moore said.
Into a surgical metaverse
Imagine a childhood surgery is documented in VR and remains accessible 25 years later.
That’s the long-term vision for the technology: A fully immersive “surgical metaverse” where patients can carry their 3D heart models throughout their lives to share with doctors worldwide as needed.
As Cincinnati Children’s and other pediatric surgery programs test virtual reality, one thing is clear: Technology, medicine, and empathy are shaping the very heart of care.
