Image Based Virtual Reality Haptic Simulation for Multimodal Skin Tumor Surgery Training

We present the Virtual Reality Haptic Surgery Platform (VRHSP), a multimodal haptic virtual reality training simulator for elliptical skin excisions (i.e., skin tumor surgeries). Using a haptic device and a head mounted display, participants interact with actual skin images mapped to a 3D simulated surgical suite. In this study, the primary aim is to build the VRHSP with an initial narrow focus of simulating the outlining and incision steps of skin tumor surgeries with realistic tactile and visual feedback collocated in a 3D clinical scene. The secondary aim is to investigate the effectiveness of the VRHSP's haptic feedback capability, which we hypothesized would play an important role because skin tumor surgery is a tactile skill. The results of user studies on non-medical and medical participants from Kent State University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, respectively. The qualitative results suggest that the VRHSP has potential for high adoption, especially with haptic feedback. The quantitative results demonstrate the VRHSP's ability to discern experts from non-experts. Finally, the improved performance of participants with feedback suggests that haptic feedback can be used as a teaching tool as well as a realism tool.