Wii Gaming Remote
NEW YORK, May 4, 2009 — An adapted Nintendo Wii handheld wireless device—the "WiiMote"-appears to be an outstanding substitute for the standard keyboard and mouse used to manipulate computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images, according to presentations at the American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting, which wrapped up late last week in Boston.
In an interview with Reuters Health, senior author Dr George Shih and Dr Matthew Amans at the Weill Cornell College of Medicine in New York, explained, "The WiiMote is the first portable, fully interactive radiology training tool that allows residents to take cases from their seats in the audience, simply by passing around the WiiMote for each case."
In their studies, Drs Amans and Shih also found that the interactive device has the potential to improve radiologists' management of their ever-increasing daily workload. Repetitive motion injury is a concern for radiologists, who constantly use a traditional keyboard and mouse to review images.
"In case conferences, residents are able to control an entire cross-sectional case, as opposed to previous lectures where we had to rely on single images, with no interaction between residents and cases," Dr Amans explained. "It's more like a simulation of daily radiology work, where residents can control the entire study and come up with the diagnosis."
"We believe that it better prepares residents for taking their board exam[ination]s," Dr Shih added.
Working with software developers Dr Michael Brown and Lu Zheng at the National University of Singapore, they created the "infrared handheld device with motion-sensing capability that allows the user to scroll/pan/window/zoom through a set of images via hand movement and pointing," the team wrote in the meeting abstract.
According to results of a survey following a case conference in which the new device was used, "Junior residents were very enthusiastic and they wanted to implement the WiiMote into daily routine for their educational conferences," Dr Amans noted. "The attending radiologists providing the conferences enjoyed using it, thought it added educational benefit to conferences, and that it helped their ability to teach residents."
Their goals for the wireless device are not limited to the classroom, though. According to Dr Shih, "We thought that it would be more ergonomic than using a mouse and keyboard, and therefore easier to get through large data sets and improve workflow."
They conducted a preliminary accuracy study in which 3 radiologists used the WiiMote to reinterpret studies they previously read using a keyboard and mouse over a year ago.
"We found they continued to have great accuracy, and that findings made with the WiiMote correlated strongly with the findings they made originally," Dr Shih said.
The research team is making the WiiMote (Wii Remote) software freely available for instructors who want to use it to teach radiology to their trainees/students. The software can be obtained by contacting Dr Shih at ges9006@med.cornell.edu.
Source: Reuters Health Information
