Nowadays a plethora of treatment technologies is available to the consumer, each employing a variety of concepts of the body, self, sickness and healing. This volume explores the options, strategies and consequences that are both relevant and necessary for patients and practitioners who are manoeuvring this medical plurality. Although wideranging in scope and covering areas as diverse as India, Ecuador, Ghana and Norway, central to all contributions is the observation that technologies of healing are founded on socially learned and to some extent fluid experiences of body and self.
Virtual Reality has the potential to provide descriptive and practical information for medical training and therapy while relieving the patient or the physician. Multimodal interactions between the user and the virtual environment facilitate the generation of high-fidelity sensory impressions, by using not only visual and auditory, but also kinesthetic, tactile, and even olfactory feedback modalities. On the basis of the existing physiological constraints, Virtual Reality in Medicine derives the technical requirements and design principles of multimodal input devices, displays, and rendering techniques. Resulting from a course taught by the authors, Virtual Reality in Medicine presents examples for surgical training, intra-operative augmentation, and rehabilitation that are already in use as well as those currently in development. It is well suited as introductory material for engineering and computer science students, as well as researchers who want to learn more about basic technologies in the area of virtual reality applied to medicine. It also provides a broad overview to non-engineering students as well as clinical users, who desire to learn more about the current state of the art and future applications of this technology.
Augmented reality (AR) is transforming how we work, learn, play and connect with the world, and is now being introduced to the field of medicine, where it is revolutionising healthcare as pioneering virtual elements are being added to real images to provide a more compelling and intuitive view during procedures. This book, which had its beginnings at the AE-CAI: Augmented Environments for Computer-Assisted Interventions MICCAI Workshop in Munich in 2015, is the first to review the area of mixed and augmented reality in medicine. Covering a range of examples of the use of AR in medicine, it explores its relevance to minimally-invasive interventions, how it can improve the accuracy of a procedure and reduce procedure time, and how it may be employed to reduce radiation risks. It also discusses how AR can be an effective tool in the education of physicians, medical students, nurses and other health professionals. Features: An ideal practical guide for medical professionals and students looking to understand the implementation, applications, and future of AR Contains the latest developments and technologies in this innovative field Edited by highly respected pioneers in the field, who have been immersed in AR as well as virtual reality and image-guided surgery since their inception, with chapter contributions from subject area specialists working with AR
Since 1992, when it began as the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference, NextMed/MMVR has been a forum for researchers utilizing IT advances to improve diagnosis and therapy, medical education, and procedural training. Scientists and engineers, physicians and other care providers, educators and students, military medicine specialists, futurists, and industry all come together with the shared goal of making healthcare more precise and effective.This book presents the proceedings of the 20th NextMed/MMVR conference, held in San Diego, California, USA, in February 2013. It covers a wide range of topics simulation, modeling,
There is a tremendous interest among researchers for the development of virtual, augmented reality and games technologies due to their widespread applications in medicine and healthcare. To date the major applications of these technologies include medical simulation, telemedicine, medical and healthcare training, pain control, visualisation aid for surgery, rehabilitation in cases such as stroke, phobia and trauma therapies. Many recent studies have identified the benefits of using Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality or serious games in a variety of medical applications. This research volume on Virtual, Augmented Reality and Serious Games for Healthcare 1 offers an insightful introduction to the theories, development and applications of virtual, augmented reality and digital games technologies in medical and clinical settings and healthcare in general. It is divided into six sections: section one presents a selection of applications in medical education and healthcare management; Section two relates to the nursing training, health literacy and healthy behaviour; Section three presents the applications of Virtual Reality in neuropsychology; Section four includes a number of applications in motor rehabilitation; Section five aimed at therapeutic games for various diseases; and the final section presents the applications of Virtual Reality in healing and restoration. This book is directed to the healthcare professionals, scientists, researchers, professors and the students who wish to explore the applications of virtual, augmented reality and serious games in healthcare further.
Medical Progress and Social Reality is an anthology of nineteenth-century literature on medicine and medical practice. Situated at the interdisciplinary juncture of medicine, history, and literature, it includes mostly fictional but also some nonfictional works by British, French, American, and Russian writers that describe the day-to-day social realities of medicine during a period of momentous change. Issues addressed in these works include the hierarchy in the profession, the use of new instruments such as the stethoscope, the advent of women doctors, the function of the hospital, and the shifting balance of power between physicians and patients. The volume provides an introductory overview of the most important aspects of medical progress in the nineteenth century, and it includes an annotated bibliography of further readings in medical history and literature. Selections from Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, Gustave Flaubert, Sarah Orne Jewett, Sinclair Lewis, Mikhail Bulgakov, and others are included, as well as the American Medical Association's 1847 Code of Ethics.
One of the most amazing capacities of the human mind is its ability to go beyond its boundaries. The well-known example of the "blind man" by Gregory Bateson helps us understand how our mind is able to expand its potentiality thanks to the use of a tool. This famous example demonstrates two specific features that characterize the relationship between the human mind and the use of tool. From a neuropsychological point of view, the tool is integrated in near space, extending it to the end point of the instrument. From a phenomenological point of view, we are present in the tool because we can use it in an intuitive way to realize our intentions. As Riva and Mantovani suggested, there is also another type of relationship between mind and technology, namely the second-order mediated action. In this case, the subject uses the body to control a distal tool that controls a different one to exert an action upon an external object. An example of a second-order mediated action is what happens with Virtual Reality (VR): I use my body to move an avatar (a distal tool) to exert an action upon an external object (a virtual environment). On one side, the outcome of this process further extends the space of action. From an experiential viewpoint, when interacting in a virtual space, we are also present in the distal virtual environment. On these theoretical bases, it is clear what makes VR development distinctively important is that it represents more than a simple technology in different domains of human society. In recent years, the field of VR has grown immensely. Practical applications for the use of this advanced technology encompasses many fields, from personnel training supported by interactive 3D images in industrial centers, to the use of interactive virtual environments for marketing purposes. One of the newest fields to benefit from the advances in VR technology is medicine and healthcare. Impressive advances in technology, coupled with a reduction in the economic costs have supported the development of more usable, useful, and accessible VR systems that can uniquely target a range of physical, psychological, and cognitive clinical targets and research questions. The aim of the book Virtual Reality-Technologies, Medical Applications, and Challenges is twofold: (1) to provide a critical overview of the most interesting medical applications of VR technologies and (2) to reflect on the future challenges in this growing field.
The last century has witnessed tremendous changes in the education and training system of medical students, as well as medical and surgical residents, in short, our future physicians. This has been the result of the changes in the educational philosophy, the technology, and the needs of our patients, just to name a few. The challenge is to learn more about the various systems in medical education throughout the world and identify advantages and disadvantages, a process from which we can all (and most importantly our patients) benefit from. This book is a compilation of the experiences, thoughts, and "best-practice" advice of a panel of international experts on medical and surgical education.
The Body Multiple is an extraordinary ethnography of an ordinary disease. Drawing on fieldwork in a Dutch university hospital, Annemarie Mol looks at the day-to-day diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis. A patient information leaflet might describe atherosclerosis as the gradual obstruction of the arteries, but in hospital practice this one medical condition appears to be many other things. From one moment, place, apparatus, specialty, or treatment, to the next, a slightly different “atherosclerosis” is being discussed, measured, observed, or stripped away. This multiplicity does not imply fragmentation; instead, the disease is made to cohere through a range of tactics including transporting forms and files, making images, holding case conferences, and conducting doctor-patient conversations. The Body Multiple juxtaposes two distinct texts. Alongside Mol’s analysis of her ethnographic material—interviews with doctors and patients and observations of medical examinations, consultations, and operations—runs a parallel text in which she reflects on the relevant literature. Mol draws on medical anthropology, sociology, feminist theory, philosophy, and science and technology studies to reframe such issues as the disease-illness distinction, subject-object relations, boundaries, difference, situatedness, and ontology. In dialogue with one another, Mol’s two texts meditate on the multiplicity of reality-in-practice. Presenting philosophical reflections on the body and medical practice through vivid storytelling, The Body Multiple will be important to those in medical anthropology, philosophy, and the social study of science, technology, and medicine.
