Innovative Augmented Reality Applications for Cardiac Physiology and Pathophysiology Education: An Interactive Approach for Coronary Anatomy and Interventional Procedures

Augmented reality applications have rapidly become a powerful tool in the teaching and practice of medicine due to their abilities to visually overlay high-resolution digital models onto physical environments, promoting both interactive and spatially accurate learning. This paper presents an augmented reality game, Coronary Quest, creatively designed to enhance teaching and comprehension of cardiac anatomy, physiology, and pathologies in a fun and unique way. This platform focuses on the most common type of heart disease, coronary artery disease, and introduces users to interventional procedures commonly used to treat patients with this condition. The application features a transparent myocardium with red coronary arteries, allowing users to travel through the left main coronary artery while encountering blood flow, red blood cells, and pathological elements such as plaques and calcifications. While traveling through the artery, users are required to make clinical decisions by selecting the appropriate interventional strategy when met with different occlusions. Emerging literature highlights the advantages of combining imaging techniques such as micro-computed tomography with extended reality technologies for improving knowledge retention and procedural training. By making this application free globally, our goal is to excite the next generation of physicians, improve understanding and confidence in performing simulated interventional tasks for trainees, and expand the anatomical perspective and knowledge for all users. Our project illustrates how employed augmented reality can continue to serve as a transformative educational tool by using high resolution imaging and an interactive game play environment to learn through clinically relevant scenario-based learning opportunities.