A Whole Body, Multi-Purpose, Ultrasound Simulator

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sonography is an increasingly popular diagnostic and guidance tool used by a wide variety of medical specialists. There is significant evidence that current sonography training is inefficient and often inadequate, ultimately resulting in risk to the patient due both to non-optimal care and the use of patients as training tools. This project will develop a whole body ultrasound simulator tied to virtual anatomy derived from the Visible Human Project. The combination will yield a system for training and testing that has significant advantages over existing methods. The specific aims of this phase I proposal are designed to prove the viability of the proposed system and are: 1) Assign acoustic properties to Visible Human tissues so that the simulated ultrasound displays accurate acoustic backscatter. 2) Add real time deformation of soft tissues to the Ultrasound Simulator. 3) Integrate the haptic-driven Needle Insertion Simulator with the Ultrasound Simulator to allow simultaneous operation in order to simulate ultrasound-guided cannulation of the internal jugular vein. 4) Develop renal pathologies that accurately demonstrate under simulated ultrasound typical characteristics seen during diagnostic procedures. 5) Demonstrate integration of the Ultrasound Simulator with a mentor program to enhance the subjects training as well as to test their skills. These aims will be accomplished by a combination of data gathering, finite element modeling, and a host of proprietary techniques jointly pioneered at the University of Colorado Center for Human Simulation and Touch of Life Technologies.