Virtual reality for the observation of oncology models (VROOM): immersive analytics for oncology patient cohorts

The significant advancement of inexpensive and portable virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality devices has re-energised the research in the immersive analytics field. The immersive environment is different from a traditional 2D display used to analyse 3D data as it provides a unified environment that supports immersion in a 3D scene, gestural interaction, haptic feedback and spatial audio. Genomic data analysis has been used in oncology to understand better the relationship between genetic profile, cancer type, and treatment option. This paper proposes a novel immersive analytics tool for cancer patient cohorts in a virtual reality environment, virtual reality to observe oncology data models. We utilise immersive technologies to analyse the gene expression and clinical data of a cohort of cancer patients. Various machine learning algorithms and visualisation methods have also been deployed in VR to enhance the data interrogation process. This is supported with established 2D visual analytics and graphical methods in bioinformatics, such as scatter plots, descriptive statistical information, linear regression, box plot and heatmap into our visualisation. Our approach allows the clinician to interrogate the information that is familiar and meaningful to them while providing them immersive analytics capabilities to make new discoveries toward personalised medicine.