Virtual Collaboration
Meeting cancer patients’ needs
By Ann Christenson, CJPA ’90
A woman is seated calmly in a chair inside an exam room. The straps of a headset are fastened comfortably around her head, and her eyes are focused on a visual display. As the minutes pass, the woman “visits” several treatment rooms inside a clinical facility and learns from a virtual radiation oncologist about the process of receiving radiation therapy for her breast cancer. Although the patient continues to sit calmly in the chair, she feels as though she’s lying on a table as a large machine rotates around her and administers radiation into her body.
This virtual reality simulation, complete with the “replica” doctor guiding her through the process, allows this breast cancer patient to experience what her treatment will be like before she undergoes it. It’s one of the tools innovative Marquette engineers and Medical College of Wisconsin doctors are collaborating on to achieve the very best outcomes in health care.
Citing a 2012 study in Patient Education and Counseling that found clinically relevant levels of anxiety in some 45 percent of breast cancer patients, Marquette biomedical engineering graduate student Sophia Shanahan grounds her work for this virtual reality project on the importance of meeting patients’ needs before they undergo treatment.
“Even armed with brochures and standard 2D videos before their first treatments, the patient often faces a great deal of anxiety,” she says. Immersing patients in a virtual reality scene may help alleviate their stress related to treatment.
“Our team can develop all of the technology we want, but without the clinical expertise, these would be merely theoretical projects.”
Shanahan spearheaded the programming side of this project with mentor Chris Larkee, Marquette Visualization Lab (MARVL) visual technology specialist. Shanahan, Eng ’18, reflected on the evolution of virtual reality as a tool in medical technology: “There’s so much potential for its medical and educational applications in the future,” she says.
Equally involved are the experts at MCW, Drs. Monica Shukla and Carmen Bergom, assistant and associate professors of radiation oncology, respectively, and Dr. Melinda Stolley, professor in the Department of Medicine, who will assess the success of the project using psychological scales and measures. Individuals on both sides of the research acknowledge that neither Marquette nor MCW could execute a project such as this without the other.
“There is real value in our joint program,” notes Dr. John LaDisa, Eng ’00, Grad ’01, ’04, associate professor of biomedical engineering. “Our team can develop all of the technology we want, but without the clinical expertise, these would be merely theoretical projects.”
The team’s next step is to conduct a clinical trial. “It is important to move the needle and ensure we are having the desired clinical outcome of reducing anxiety and improving treatment preparedness,” adds LaDisa.
