U.S. scientists say they have created software that can convert flat medical scans into 3-D images that can be shifted, adjusted, zoomed and replayed at will.
The researchers, Iowa State University Professor James Oliver and Associate Professor Eliot Winer, say their software can use data from computerized tomography or magnetic resonance imaging scans to assist physicians in planning a surgical procedure or a round of radiation therapy. The software, they added, can also be used to teach physiology and anatomy.
Two-dimensional imaging technologies have been used in medicine for a long time, Winer said, but the flat images aren't easily read and understood by anybody but specialists.
"If I'm a surgeon or an oncologist or a primary care physician, I deal with patients in 3-D," Winer added.
A 2007 state grant of $109,533 helped the scientists develop the technology into a commercial software product. The result is BodyViz.com, a startup company based at the university's CyberInnovation Institute. The company is now marketing the software as "Simple. Visual. 3D."
"3-D visualization is used all the time. But for the medical field it's a paradigm shift," said Winer. "And once doctors understand the basics of our software, they don't understand how they lived without it."
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