The New Wave of Imaging Technology in Medicine

From the discovery of x-rays in 1895 to the utilization of ultrasound, MRI, and CT scanners in the 1960s and 70s, health care has long depended on imaging to provide the best quality diagnostics and care for patients. Now, as new forms of imaging such as virtual reality and augmented reality hit the scene, researchers including Jayender Jagadeesan, PhD, of the Surgical Planning Lab in the Radiology Department at BWH, look to bring these imaging techniques into the operating room. As the most immersive type of imaging, virtual reality (VR) takes the user into a completely digital world with digital objects. Jagadeesan and his colleagues at the National Center for Image-Guided Therapy (NCIGT) at BWH see virtual reality as a potential tool for use in diagnostics and education. The NCIGT is an NIH-funded center – led by Clare Tempany, MD – whose objective is to enhance medical procedures using patient-specific imaging during surgery or therapy. In radiology, it is difficult to look across several scans to spot minute changes in small masses in the lungs over time to determine if they are cancerous.

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