Exploratory visualization of surgical training databases for improving skill acquisition.

A new visualization system analyzes multidimensional surgical performance databases of information collected via emerging surgical robot and simulator technologies. In particular, it has visualized force, position, rotation, and synchronized video data from 300 bimanual laparoscopic surgery tasks performed by more than 50 surgeons. To explore data, the system uses a multiple-coordinated-views framework. It provides techniques to select and filter multivariate time series data, visualize animated force plots in conjunction with contextual videos, encode multivariate bimanual tool trace data in 3D visualizations, and link visualizations to a database management system via a new generalizable data model. Insights and feedback from an interdisciplinary iterative design process and use case studies support the utility of visualization in this emerging area of data-driven surgical training.