CRaIVE (Collaborators in Radiological Interventional Virtual Environments), is a consortium comprising of clinicians, physicists, computer scientists, clinical engineers and psychologists. Our aim is to implement and validate sophisticated virtual environments designed for use in the training of radiological interventional procedures.

Interventional Radiology (IR)

IR is keyhole surgery using needles, specialised wires and tubes (catheters), guided by touch and imaging (x-ray, 'Cat Scan'--CT, ultrasound). IR benefits from local anaesthesia, a tiny incision, few complications, reduced postoperative pain, short hospital stay and low cost. Most IR procedures commence with needle puncture of a blood vessel to insert guide wires and catheters: these clinical skills are acquired by all radiologists during training, as an apprenticeship in patients, inevitably associated with some discomfort and occasionally, complications. 'Straightforward' cases for diagnosis are ideal for training but are being replaced by state-of-the-art, non-invasive imaging methods. While some skills (mainly visual, relating to orientation and spatial negotiation) can be taught in models (as in surgery), these have limitations for IR which relies heavily on a sense of touch. Both patients and trainees would benefit from the use of computers to create a VE with devices conveying touch sensation (haptics) to realistically mimic procedures on patients. Removal of this initial experience from the clinical environment would be time efficient while improving patient safety and reducing the time taken for medical trainees to attain and maintain higher levels of competence.