AUGMENTED REALITY OFFERS A PROMISE OF INCISION-FREE AUTOPSIES
This is one vision of the virtual future of autopsies, based on interviews with forensic and digital health-care experts: Using digital reconstructions and machine-learning algorithms to diagnose the cause of death, identify a victim, and even triage battlefield or motor-vehicle injuries in live patients by analyzing images of victims who died in similar incidents. It would mark a step change for the field of forensic science, where the standard methods of autopsy have remained nearly unchanged for a century.
None of this would be possible without computed tomography, or CT scans that use rotating X-ray machines to create cross-sectional images of the body. CT scans are common in clinical practice, but still relatively rare in forensic pathology, especially in the U.S. where the medical examiner system is fragmented and some states have coroners who aren’t medically trained.
One global reference point for forensic imaging is the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in southeastern Australia, which has built up a database of some 80,000 CT scans representing deaths ranging from traumatic injuries to homicide and suicide. Experts there are turning to machine learning to put millions of images to future use, from providing airtight evidence in criminal cases to quicker identification of victims of mass disasters.
See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/augmented-reality-offers-a-promise-of-incision-free-autopsies-11601485158