Visualization of medical conditions in a virtual universe

摘要

This disclosure provides a system and method to enable the diagnosis, prognosis and emulation of medical conditions using virtual world environments. The system and method combines probabilistic and pattern recognition mechanisms for both real and virtual world applications to increase health care reach and presence within computational environments. The disclosure describes a system and method that uses physiological measurements and behaviors to diagnose a medical condition. Experimental data, either gathered or generated, provide points for emulation. An emulation algorithm increases the feeling of user presence within a virtual world. Avatar behaviors are mapped to scripts which describe the output of the medical diagnosis and prognosis algorithm. Based on proposed treatment plans, emulations can be run, and the appearance of the avatar altered based on the outcome (e.g., improvement, worsening, etc.).

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for virtual diagnosis comprising:
receiving data, which includes patient imaging data, for a patient in a memory medium, the patient being an actual human patient that has a current medical condition; generating a set of avatars corresponding to the actual human patient using the data, each avatar of the set of avatars being generated to have an appearance of the patient and to emulate a current physical state and movements of the patient based on the medical condition indicated by the data; providing an interface that enables the patient to select an avatar that most closely matches the physical state of the patient from the set of avatars and to modify the avatar to more closely match the physical state of the patient; receiving in the memory medium a treatment plan from a remote medical practitioner in a virtual clinic to address the medical condition of the patient in the memory medium; simulating an outcome for the patient based upon the treatment plan, said simulating comprising use of probabilistic and pattern recognition mechanisms for analysis of a combination of said treatment plan and potential prognoses and diagnoses to identify the outcome as a most plausible outcome; and adjusting the appearance of the avatar to reflect a series of predicted changes in the physical state of the patient over time based on the simulating of the outcome.