The United States military's thigh trauma simulator

Computer-generated virtual environments bring the potential to practice complex mental and physical tasks in safe and controlled conditions. When applied to medical procedures, they could allow students to gain experience with a wide variety of cases, in optimal order, and with no patient risk. The United States military is funding the development of a virtual environment to present a variety of health care providers, including orthopaedic surgeons, with case scenarios based on thigh trauma resulting in femur fractures. Data from the Visible Human project are being used to create the underlying virtual anatomy. This paper discusses an effort to imbue models created from the Visible Human male with thigh trauma related to femur fractures and to display the results in clinically relevant ways including virtual fluoroscopy and radiography, ultrasound, palpation, and nonclinical but educationally useful methods including transparency.