What Are 3d Medical Animations?

A medical animation is a short interactive movie which is normally made of 3D computer graphics, a physiological or operative subject. While the medical animation may be designed for a range of audiences, it is most often used as a tool for medical professionals or their patients. Due to low processing speed, early animated medical devices were restricted to simple wire frame models. However, rapid advances in the architecture and computer memory of microprocessors have led to more complex animations.

Medical animation may be displayed separately, or in conjunction with other sensory feedback devices such as head-mounted displaying, stereoscopic glasses, haptic gloves, or Cave Automatic Virtual Environments (CAVEs).

History

The word medical animation goes on about three decades before the emergence of computer graphics. While in 1963, Bell Telephone Labs developed the first computer animation[1] in academic contexts, the word ‘medical animation’ was published in the Biological Photography Journal as early as 1932. As mentioned by Clarke and Hoshall, the term referred to in illustrated bi-dimensional movies generated to be used in movies screened for medical students.

In the beginning of the 1970s the development of computer-produced medical animation began. An issue from the Science newspaper dated 1975 provides the first explanation of the use of 3D computer graphics for medical purposes. Its authors identified the possible uses of medical animation to imagine complex macromolecules, a team of researchers from the departments of chemistry and biochemistry and biophysics at the Texas A&M university.

Applications

• Patient Education – The development of clips that illustrate surgery procedures or medication action mechanisms clearly enough to understand is a growing trend in medical animation studios. These animation materials are accessible on websites of hospitals, doctor’s office, online sanitary websites or via the studios of medical animation. Such animations can also appear as a way for an audience to learn about a medical subject, including television shows, OTT channels and other popular entertainment venues. This kind of animation is sometimes used in hospitals. Clips could be used in this way to gain full consent from patients who are faced with surgery or medical care. Studies have likewise indicated that medical animations that inform patients could reduce the rate of unintentional wrong-site operations.
• Medical Simulation – Because of the relative lack of corpses for surgery and of the diminishing use of animals and patients without permission, institutions may use medical animations to teach anatomical or surgical principles to be performed by the medical profession. Such simulations can be used on a passive basis or using interactive controls (as is the case in 3D medical animations included on CD-ROM in the Medical Lessons packages). Another potential application of medical animated technology is the encouragement of hand-eye skills using haptics, which results from the substitution of corpses with mission coaches and mannequins in operating classrooms.
• Cellular and Molecular Animation – The large number of microscopic processes in the human anatomy are also used as a tool for visualizing medical animations. These include organelles, DNA transcription, molecular action of enzyme, pathogens-and-white blood cell interactions, or virtually any other cellular or sub-cellular phase. Molecular animations are similar because they represent objects too small to see for the human eye. However, this latter category may also illustrate atomic structures often too small to be clearly visualized by microscopy.
• Pharmaceutical Mechanism of Action – Pharmaceutical manufacturers should have mechanisms for the animation of action to illustrate how medicines are functioning. These medical visualizations also do not display cellular structures entirely or proportionally across websites devoted to such prescription drugs. They do not. Instead, mechanisms of action animation can simplify the interaction between medicine molecules and cells visually. The physiologic origins of this disease can also be explained by these health animations.
• Emergency Care Instruction – Several studies have shown that 3D animations can be used to teach novices how cardiopulmonary rehabilitation can be done in an emergency. These studies generally recommend the use of pre-prepared movement-capture animations that are displayed using a mobile device.
• Forensic Reconstruction – Several applications have been developed for medical animations in the forensic field. These include the “virtutopsy” or the virtual autopsy assisted by MRI of remains too weakened or reconstructed otherwise. Similarly, medical animations in the courtrooms can be used for forensic “reconstruction” of criminal scenes, or the crimes may be recreated. There is doubtful admissibility of such evidence.
• Electronic or Interactive Learning – Researchers have suggested that medical animations can be used to electronically spread medical educational material so that practitioners and amateur healthcare practitioners can access and use the material.
• Surgical Training and Planning – Some institutes use animations both to teach medical students how to execute fundamental operations and to provide seasonal surgeons with an opportunity to improve their skills. Multiple reviews of the efficacy and feasibility of surgical pre-planning based on medical animation was performed. As integrated technology in image-guided surgery, experimental animation tools were also developed. Today, surgical training uses virtual reality ( VR), augmented reality (AR), and simulation in conjunction with medical animation.