A surgical virtual environment for navigating experience.

A computer generated pre-surgical planning and teaching environment is proposed for training and evaluating novice surgeons. Although this environment is generic and can be put into practice in any medical specialisation where such 3D imaging techniques are in use, in this project we specifically focus on vascular surgery. This environment will be developed as part of the DIME project (Distributed Interactive Medical Exploratory). We are building this Virtual Environment (VE) using a new navigational metaphor, which includes modelling the learning process, rather than the operating room.