Treatment of spine disorders remain one of the costliest diseases, and, as the population ages, the prevalence of spinal degenerative disorders will only increase.
Dr. Luke Macyszyn is one of the neurosurgeons at UCLA, treating many patients with spine diseases. A critical part of an outpatient visit in the Spine Center at Santa Monica is explaining aa patient's circumstance to them. Spinal pathologies may be complicated to explain as multiple features of the spine are affected.
I created a database of spinal pathologies with animations in Autodesk Maya and then added interactions in Unity. These pathologies include:
- Canal Stenosis
- Disk herniation
- Disk bulging
- Scoliosis
The 3D model was modified from a generic model, which had each disk and vertebra already separated into individual objects. The animations show the development of the disease over time. Interaction within Unity allows the user to view the pathology from different angles, including from within the spinal canal.
This application is built for the Smasung Gear VR with a bluetooth controller. It has been used in the clinic to show to patients, who gave their feedback for the research of improving clinical communication.
This work has been presented as abstracts at AANS and GSC.