"We are on the cutting-edge of combining Hollywood animation software with hard scientific methodology," said Aaron Oliker, CyberFiber's CEO and chief animator. Oliker and Dr. Joseph Dayan, President of CyberFiber, expanded and programmed the Alias|Wavefront
The development of the three-dimensional animated heart took one and a half years to complete, using multiple ovine data sets from a Stanford University study applied to a digital human heart, creating the most detailed and precise beating heart to date.
According to Grossi, "I am extremely optimistic about the future of this advanced medical animation technology with respect to cardiac surgery. Medical animation software integrated into state-of-the-art robotic systems will create a new modality in visualization, so that a surgeon-in-training will be able to practice a simulated surgery through the use of virtual reality. This is a major break-though in medical animation."
Recognized internationally as leaders in cutting-edge surgical technology with Drs. Grossi and Colvin performing the first robotic-assisted valve repair surgery in 2000 and implementing HDTV into the operating room, the cardiac surgical research team in tandem with CyberFiber has now established a new standard in surgical technology with the development of the computer-animated heart. Colvin explained, "Medical animation software is going to provide an in-depth tool for physicians to be able to take high volume, high resolution data sets, and put them into models that can be explored visually helping us understand what is going on in a particular patient."