The virtual surgery patient: development of a digital, three-dimensional model of human anatomy designed for surgical education

Teaching medical students about the anatomical principles of surgical procedures is a challenging task. In an effort to design a new tool that allows a third year medical student to explore specific surgical problems, the New York University School of Medicine Department of Surgery and the New York University School of Medicine Advanced Educational Systems lab collaborated to develop a virtual surgery patient (VSP). The VSP is a realistic set of three-dimensional models of human anatomy. Unlike previous applications, our objective was to create lightweight 3-D models with the inherent ability to deform smoothly upon animation, with an architecture that allowed for enhanced texturing as well as polygon reduction. We developed a technique for using reconstructed volume data from the Visible Human Project to create surface models that were easy to manipulate, avoiding artifacts introduced when resurrecting volumes from cadaveric sliced stacks. Surface shading can be used to give the models the appearance of living tissue, as well as allow for enhancements sometimes necessary to achieve an educational goal.