Center for Medical Innovations in Extended Reality (MIXR)

MIXR, a National Science Foundation-supported joint effort between computer science and visualization experts at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the medical schools at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, the University of Michigan, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is developing the scientific foundations for designing and assessing extended-reality (XR) applications in medicine. Collaborating with our industry partners and regulatory scientists, we are exploring the use of XR to improve public health and healthcare outcomes across education and simulation, clinical care delivery, and applying data science and machine learning to improve diagnosis and therapeutics. MIXR has specifically identified driving applications in clinical practice, medical education and training, and regulatory standards. In service of these, we bring unique capabilities in scene acquisition, predictive modeling, immersive telepresence, human factors, and imaging and displays. Beyond these applications, we are interested in evaluating metrics and useability, 5G/6G, AI/ML, and displays for XR devices in healthcare applications. Working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, other regulatory and standards agencies, and our industry members (currently Sony, MediView, Cook Advanced Technologies, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and Microsoft), we will address open research questions in these areas. Program outcomes are laying the groundwork for regulatory requirements and decisions regarding XR devices; our focus is on current gaps and evaluation challenges across a range of clinical specialties and various XR hardware and software platforms. Bridging the gaps currently preventing ubiquitous use of XR will likely decrease medical errors and save lives, and thus have a substantial economic and social impact on medicine.