The Blevins Lab

The Blevins Lab focuses on developing innovative otologic imaging and immersive simulation techniques.  Our collaborative effort combines individuals from diverse backgrounds, including surgery, radiology, computer science, and engineering.  Through the development of high-resolution multimodality imaging techniques, we can expand our insight into the anatomy and physiology underlying normal and disordered otologic function.  We continue to develop and refine deep learning models to efficiently segment and analyze these clinical datasets to build digital models of surgically-relevant anatomy.  Such datasets can then be explored in an immersive virtual reality environment, allowing surgeons to interact with patient-specific anatomy in a manner similar to that encountered during actual surgery.  We are developing methods through which the knowledge gained from such virtual rehearsal can then be used as a basis to augment actual surgery – transposing virtual structures on actual patient anatomy, allowing the surgeon greater understanding of complex procedures.  Though this, our goal is to extend the surgeon’s capacity to restore otologic function, by making otherwise challenging otologic surgical procedures safer, more efficient, and more effective.