axial3d Insight

This Design for Health, multi-component research includes commercially available software, academic publications, confidential report and selected exhibit for the UKRI BEYOND2019, inaugural Innovation Showcase.  It proposed the ‘development of a 3D web-based visualisation system, for use by medical professionals, enabling realistic and accurate representation of anatomy at a pre-production stage’. Within this collaborative research, Dr Magee led design culturing research strategies such as activity-centric design (Saffer, 2010), empathic journey mapping (Curdale, 2016) and positive design (Desmet, 2017), co-creative workshops, applied content design advice and mentoring to develop improved user experiences. Design visualisation theory and interaction design methods were used to increase 3D immersion, where surgeons use tablets or mobile devices on the go. A person-centric approach responded to the ‘singularity needs’ evident in clinical design (Magee, 2019).

The software provides digitally twinned anatomy in preparation for 3D printing, generated from medical DICOM imaging, through a bespoke segmentation method. 360º interactive models of a patient’s anatomy help improve diagnostic decision-making efficiency, simplifying the process of understanding pathology captured through medical imaging. 3D printed models generated from 2D image data are possible within 48 hours compared to 3 weeks using existing workflows. Surgical decision making which normally relays on interpretation of 2D scans, is now more precise through interactive 3D models and 3D prints resulting in operative efficiencies described as ‘Invaluable’ by Surgeons (Brown, 2019), and ‘…helping to transform Healthcare…’ by Matt Hancock Health Secretary (McKenna 2020), with significant wellbeing and sector implications. Through further iterative design, critical thinking and interaction task analysis, faster heuristic competency was achieved, by reduced cognitive clutter and streamlining specific operative workflows for each of the end-users (Surgeon, print technical, sales management). This led to 3 distinct applications, with a company sales increase of 1000% in 2 months and employment by 400% (Sept 2019).