VRContour: Bringing Contour Delineations of Medical Structures Into Virtual Reality

TL;DR

VRContour introduces an immersive VR system for medical structure contouring in radiotherapy, significantly improving precision and reducing mental load compared to traditional 2D software.

Contribution

The paper presents VRContour, a novel VR-based contouring tool that enhances accuracy and user experience in radiation oncology planning.

Findings

3D visualization improves contouring precision.

VR reduces mental load and frustration.

Participants favor VR metaphors for learning.

Abstract

Contouring is an indispensable step in Radiotherapy (RT) treatment planning. However, today's contouring software is constrained to only work with a 2D display, which is less intuitive and requires high task loads. Virtual Reality (VR) has shown great potential in various specialties of healthcare and health sciences education due to the unique advantages of intuitive and natural interactions in immersive spaces. VR-based radiation oncology integration has also been advocated as a target healthcare application, allowing providers to directly interact with 3D medical structures. We present VRContour and investigate how to effectively bring contouring for radiation oncology into VR. Through an autobiographical iterative design, we defined three design spaces focused on contouring in VR with the support of a tracked tablet and VR stylus, and investigating dimensionality for information consumption and input (either 2D or 2D + 3D). Through a within-subject study (n = 8), we found that visualizations of 3D medical structures significantly increase precision, and reduce mental load, frustration, as well as overall contouring effort. Participants also agreed with the benefits of using such metaphors for learning purposes.