Evaluation of a virtual reality system for medicine

The authors are currently developing a virtual reality system for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The new technology of virtual reality will be applied to a surgical simulation system, a new diagnostic system, a palliative care support system and an informed consent support system. In the research and development of this virtual reality system, one needs a method to evaluate it for practical use. For evaluating a medical virtual reality system, they propose the equation S (S: System factor=Sp: presentation factor. Sm: measurement and control factor, So: operation system factor)=/spl alpha//spl middot/A/H (A: Application factor, H: Human factor, /spl alpha/: a coefficient). They think that the human factor is the most important consideration for the development of a medical virtual reality system.