ACADEMIA

Extensive systems design, computational and visualization capabilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are playing a vital role in providing a “virtual soldier” for use in the treatment of battlefield wounds. As envisioned in the Virtual Soldier project, each soldier would be equipped with a personalized electronic dog tag that contains baseline medical data. This information would become crucial for treating wounded soldiers at the site and as the soldier is transported. While the overall mission is to revolutionize medical care for soldiers and save lives, ORNL is tasked with providing 3D visualization expertise and software that allow anatomical and physiological data to be rapidly shared and understood. The software being developed by Richard Ward and Line Pouchard will ensure that the multitude of systems likely to be used in this effort communicate efficiently. Eventually, every soldier will have a virtual representation that medical personnel can use to diagnose and treat wounds and disease. The 3D visualization of anatomy and related ontologies developed at ORNL are likely to have applications in other biomedical engineering and biomedical informatics programs. The Virtual Soldier project, led by the University of Michigan, is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.