Dwight Meglan   

Chief Technology Officer, Mentice Inc.

"Endovascular intervention training simulator”

The endovascular intervention training simulator reproduces the physics and
physiology of the human cardiovascular system such that a person can learn
to perform various procedures such as cardiac catheterization. The
simulator is a generalized solution to endovascular simulation. The initial
content scenarios developed for it center on coronary stenting and lead
placement for dual chamber pacing. This simulation is combined with a haptic
interface to give the user a natural, correct way to interact with the
simulation. In addition there is an instructional system coupled to the
simulation that provides a framework for learning from the simulation.

While the specific example described here is for coronary artery
intervention, the same principles apply for simulating tool interactions
with other vascular anatomy. It is largely a matter of creating new data
sets to be input to the simulator to simulate another part of the body. In
fact, the current system could be applied to non-vascular interventions
without much modification and could even be adapted to flexible endoscopy.
For a unique tool, some specific simulation code, which would plug into the
existing simulator, might  need  to be developed for simulating its motion
behavior and interaction with tissue.

Beyond training, the same simulation core can be adapted in the future to
develop mathematical prototypes of tools and procedures as well as used in
conjunction with patient data to perform individualized procedure
rehearsals. These are all direct descendents of the simulator described here.