Suresh Muknahallipatna (left), a UW professor of electrical and computer engineering,
and Bradley Riotto, a UW master’s student in electrical engineering, demonstrate the
AR goggles for which they designed the software application in concert with McGinley
Orthopedics of Casper. The two also designed the software interface with the ultrasound
probe. (UW Photo)
University of Wyoming researchers and a Casper medical company have teamed up to bring
to market an augmented reality (AR) system that will make ultrasound-guided surgical
injection procedures easier, faster and more comfortable.
Suresh Muknahallipatna, a UW professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Bradley Riotto, a Jackson master’s student majoring in electrical engineering,
worked with Dr. Joseph McGinley, CEO and founder of McGinley Orthopedics in Casper,
to design the McGinley Innovations AR system.
The system, which Muknahallipatna says has FDA approval, includes AR goggles and a
computer system to connect to nearly all ultrasound systems on the market. The system
includes a real-time image display over or near the injection site. This allows surgeons
or other medical professionals to visualize the image on the computer screen and the
treatment site simultaneously.
“This project is a perfect example of a successful public/private partnership. The
engineering team at the University of Wyoming was able to take my clinical concept
and work with McGinley Innovations to implement the idea in a practical and usable
way,” McGinley says. “I would not have been able to bring this idea to market without
their assistance, nor would they have been able to accomplish it independently. It
took the collaboration to see this idea to fruition.”
“We are excited to be on the market with the McGinley AR system,” says Diane McGinley,
director of operations for McGinley Orthopedics. “It is currently being used in clinical
settings. Casper Medical Imaging here in Casper was the first to purchase the system.
I love that a Wyoming company was first to support the product.”
Casper Medical Imaging is using the system to treat patients for sports-related injuries
and other overuse injuries that require ultrasound-guided injections.
The AR system also is being used by the Badia Hand to Shoulder Center in Miami, Fla.,
and has been featured on OrthoNow, a popular orthopedic site and blog.
“I think this technology has some really exciting potential, both now and in the future.
It has immediate impact by making ultrasound-guided injection procedures easier, faster
and more comfortable,” says Riotto, who recently presented his thesis. “In the future,
similar systems may be used for a variety of image-guided procedures.”
Previously, surgeons had to turn their heads to look at a computer screen to view
the correct spot to insert a needle or perform a particular surgery, Muknahallipatna
says. This often caused the surgeon neck strain, and the surgeon had to look back
to the patient to estimate the exact spot where to perform the surgery or insert an
epidural to a patient’s spinal cord, for example, he says.
“With the AR system, I can see everything around me. With AR, I can project 3-D holograms
wherever I want and can still keep working,” Muknahallipatna says of wearing the AR
goggles that resemble a golf visor. “We take the ultrasound image going to the monitor.
It’s still going to the monitor, but we feed that image to the AR device.
“What you see in the monitor is now floating in the air,” he continues. “You can grab
the image with your hands and move it where you want. This lessens stress on the neck,
and the surgeon puts the hologram on the body itself.”
Riotto says he started working with the HoloLens for his senior design project while
an undergraduate. Around the same time, Muknahallipatna started initial talks with
McGinley for doing AR for medical applications.
“Since I was working on AR at the time, Suresh brought me on board, and we started
developing for a variety of medical applications, including this one,” Riotto says.
Riotto, who was recently hired as an enterprise software engineer at Charles Stark
Draper Lab in Cambridge, Mass., says he essentially designed and implemented the system
according to specifications from Muknahallipatna and McGinley and his engineering
team.
“We created the software for the device and the software interface with the ultrasound
probe,” Muknahallipatna says.
“I enjoyed working with the students to bring the McGinley AR to the market,” Joseph
McGinley says. “It is for the betterment of patient care, and they should be proud
of their contribution. I hope it inspires them to continue to look for projects and
ideas that can make real impact.”
Riotto says the most exciting aspect to him is that, once medical doctors and patients
experience how much AR helps in this application, it will open up doors to the use
of AR and other technologies in a broad range of applications in the medical field.
“I hope that this technology will be a large influence in modernizing the medical
field,” he says.
Muknahallipatna says he, Riotto and John McInroy, head of UW’s Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering, have a licensing agreement with McGinley Orthopedics. UW
receives a share of each system McGinley sells, he says.
While she could not discuss specific details due to confidentiality, Victoria Bryant,
interim director of UW’s Wyoming Technology Transfer and Research Products Center,
says it is a license agreement under which UW receives royalties from McGinley Orthopedics
in relation to the AR system.
