Simulators for medical training: application to vascular ultrasound imaging

Whilst computers are more and more used in the medical and surgical domains, medical education is still very conservative. However, new information technology could bring a lot to this area. In particular, simulators are of paramount interest: they would allow one both to experiment with surgical or imaging techniques for a wide range of pathologies without the need for patients and to quantitatively evaluate the trainees' performances. Ultrasound imaging is a typical area where virtual reality may change educational uses. This paper describes an ultrasound imaging simulator dedicated to the training of physicians for the detection of deep venous thromboses of the lower limbs. Like this one, a lot of other pathologies of soft tissue are diagnosed using ultrasound imaging. Because this examination is difficult and operator‐dependent, developing a simulator is very useful to give common databases of pathological samples on which physicians can both experiment with image acquisition and evaluate their understanding of clinical cases. Real‐time simulation is mandatory. An ultrasound imaging simulator has been developed and is being tested. This paper presents the hardware and software components of the simulator and describes the status of this project. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.