Design of a virtual data shelf to effectively explore a large database of 3D medical surface models in VR

PURPOSE: Medical researchers deal with a large amount of patient data to improve future treatment decisions and come up with new hypotheses. To facilitate working with a large database containing many patients and parameters, we propose a virtual data shelf, displaying the 3D anatomical surface models in an immersive VR environment. METHODS: Thereby, different functionalities such as sorting, filtering and finding similar cases are included. To provide an appropriate layout and arrangement of 3D models that optimally supports working with the database, three layouts (flat, curved and spherical) and two distances are evaluated. A broad audience study with 61 participants was conducted to compare the different layouts based on their ease of interaction, to get an overview and to explore single cases. Medical experts additionally evaluated medical use cases. RESULTS: The study revealed that the flat layout with small distance is significantly faster in providing an overview. Applying the virtual data shelf to the medical use case intracranial aneurysms, qualitative expert feedback with two neuroradiologists and two neurosurgeons was gathered. Most of the surgeons preferred the curved and spherical layouts. CONCLUSION: Our tool combines benefits of two data management metaphors, resulting in an efficient way to work with a large database of 3D models in VR. The evaluation gives insight into benefits of layouts as well as possible use cases in medical research.