HeartPad: real-time visual guidance for cardiac ultrasound

Medical ultrasound is a challenging modality when it comes to im- age interpretation. The goal we address in this work is to assist the ultrasound examiner and partially alleviate the burden of inter- pretation. We propose to address this goal with visualization that provides clear cues on the orientation and the correspondence be- tween anatomy and the data being imaged. Our system analyzes the stream of 3D ultrasound data and in real-time identifies distinct fea- tures that are basis for a dynamically deformed mesh model of the heart. The heart mesh is composited with the original ultrasound data to create the data-to-anatomy correspondence. The visualiza- tion is broadcasted over the internet allowing, among other oppor- tunities, a direct visualization on the patient on a tablet computer. The examiner interacts with the transducer and with the visualiza- tion parameters on the tablet. Our system has been characterized by domain specialist as useful in medical training and for navigating occasional ultrasound users.