Augmented Reality Ultrasound Guidance

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SUMMARY Minimally invasive ultrasound-guided procedures are a mainstay of modern medicine and the number of such procedures continues to grow. Safe, efficient, and precise execution of these procedures requires a clear visualization of the target anatomy and the interventional device (e.g., a needle). While sustained advances in ultrasound technology have led to greatly enhanced visualization of the anatomy and the needle with high image quality, hand-eye coordination of the practitioner continues to be a challenge. In order to properly position the interventional device, the practitioner must alternate their attention between observing the patient, advancing the needle, and viewing the ultrasound image on a separate screen. Our long-term goal is to develop an advanced visualization platform for ultrasound-guided procedures to overcome this challenge by greatly simplifying hand-eye coordination. The proposed platform will be developed using the latest advances in the augmented reality (AR) technology. Through wearable, see-through AR glasses, the platform will create a virtual display placed in the practitioner's field of view to show live ultrasound images, registered with the transducer and the patient, in the form of a hologram. We hypothesize that such visualization will reduce the time of procedure by 20%. Two specific aims of the project are to: (1) develop augmented reality visualization of live ultrasound images, and (2) characterize technical performance and demonstrate improved efficiency through user studies. This project is aimed at providing the practitioner a more intuitive and efficient platform to perform ultrasound-guided procedures. As these procedures continue to grow, the work is both timely and essential. Further, the project is innovative because we use AR in a novel way to create a single unified display. Our multidisciplinary team with a strong track record of pioneering novel image guidance and AR applications is uniquely qualified for this project. When fully developed, the proposed visualization platform could make ultrasound-guided procedures safer and more precise and accelerate their growth by reducing their complexity.