PreOp endoscopic simulator: a PC-based immersive training system for bronchoscopy.

The high cost of simulators that offer adequate realism for training has been a major challenge for the simulation community. The cost of the computers alone has been too high for most training institutions to afford. We have met this challenge by developing the PreOp Endoscopic Simulator, our second generation of low-cost medical simulators. The PreOp system integrates multimedia, 3D graphics simulation, and force feedback technology on a PC. This paper discusses the challenges of this project and the trade-offs and solutions that we developed to overcome them. We discuss our process of analyzing and prioritizing the medical tasks necessary to correctly perform flexible bronchoscopy. In addition, we illustrate how we blended together simulation and multimedia technology to ensure adequate immersion and training efficacy, while keeping the system cost to a minimum.