Main description:

Since 1992, when it began as the "Medicine Meets Virtual Reality" conference, NextMed/MMVR has been a forum for researchers utilizing IT advances to improve diagnosis and therapy, medical education, and procedural training. Scientists and engineers, physicians and other care providers, educators and students, military medicine specialists, futurists, and industry: all come together with the shared goal of making healthcare more precise and effective. This book presents the proceedings of the 20th NextMed/MMVR conference, held in San Diego, California, USA, in February 2013. It covers a wide range of topics: simulation, modeling, imaging, data visualization, haptics, robotics, sensors, interfaces, plasma medicine, and more. Key applications include simulator design, information-guided therapies, learning tools, mental and physical rehabilitation, and intelligence networking. During the past two decades, healthcare has been transformed by progress in computer-enabled technology, and NextMed/MMVR has played a prominent role in this transformation.