Haptics in medicine and clinical skill acquisition [special section intro.]

This special section is about understanding the role of touch in medicine and clinical skill acquisition. three major areas of haptics in medicine and clinical skill acquisition are identified, and papers are presented on each of these topics in the special section: 1. Human haptic perception and motor performance as relevant to medical examinations and procedures. This includes characterization of the nature of haptic information, and how it is perceived, which is necessary to understand how medical professionals use haptics in medical examinations and interventions. 2. Haptic systems and the role of haptics in training and evaluating clinical skills. Haptic simulators address a growing need for effective training and evaluation of clinical skills. Such simulators can be applied in a wide variety of medical professions and disciplines, including surgery, interventional radiology, anaesthesiology, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and the allied health professions. These simulators rely on both technology development (devices, software, and systems) and an understanding of how humans use haptic feedback to perform established clinical skills or learn novel skills. 3. Using haptics to improve the performance of medical interventions. Current trends in interventional medicine remove direct contact between the patient and the clinician. Bilateral teleoperators and ??smart?? instruments that use tactile sensing/display devices, sensory substitutions systems, and other methods to enhance haptic feedback to a clinician should improve the performance of interventions.