The theme of the 2001 Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference is “Outer Space, Inner Space, Virtual Space.” (How could we resist the cinematic reference?) These three different ideas, or domains, are linked by their use of interactive, computer-based, image-producing technology: Virtual Reality . And while they aren’t automatically associated with medicine, they significantly affect health care practice — now and certainly in the future.

Outer Space. While space programs seem to be experiencing a reality check after their initial glory, our species' fascination with the moon, the planets, and the stars is unflagging. We won't soon travel to Mars with today's jetliner nonchalance (including frequent flier miles and seating upgrades), but every step in that direction develops valuable tools for use now. Aerospace ambition nurtures simulation, visualization, robotics, telemedicine, and other technologies integral to MMVR.

Inner Space. The human body is also a “final frontier,” perhaps the most important one. We no longer want to see a surgeon with an obsidian blade, nor a barber's pole advertising trimmed hair and opened veins on the same premises. The efforts of MMVR researchers will some day result in tools that will make today's operating rooms look primitive. Satisfied by the integration of microscopic, information-fed devices into their bodies, our descendents may think of us as well-intentioned but naive. A future child may be astonished to leam that doctors once operated on problems from the outside of the body instead of from within.

Virtual Space. Cultural commentators have noted that the image is usurping the supreme position of the word. Fortunately, for MMVR participants, this image-based world isn't about marketing and brand recognition, but about creating new drawing boards on which to solve health problems and plan new extensions to human capability. At its best, this new image-world is an interactive domain where solutions can be envisioned and tested faster and safer than in real life. It is a catalytic environment that uses data from wide-ranging disciplines to create something entirely new.

2001. Many scenes in Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey seem silly in comparison to how electronic technology has evolved since 1968. (Rows of blinking lights are impressive, but what's on the monitor?) And Kubrick's monolith heralding revolutions in human behavior is dramatic, but not emblematic of how progress typically occurs. Progress comes not as a towering and inescapable revelation upon a boulder-strewn landscape, but as gradual understanding that, more likely than not, takes place at a paper-strewn desk.

We have borrowed Kubrick's infant as an icon of the future. While we may not know that future child who is baffled by the ancient healing methods of the year 2001, we hope this child lives in a world that has been improved by the ideas and knowledge shared here.