title: The medical simulation markup language - simplifying the biomechanical modeling workflow.
abstract: Modeling and simulation of the human body by means of continuum mechanics has become an important tool in diagnostics, computer-assisted interventions and training. This modeling approach seeks to construct patient-specific biomechanical models from tomographic data. Usually many different tools such as segmentation and meshing algorithms are involved in this workflow. In this paper we present a generalized and flexible description for biomechanical models. The unique feature of the new modeling language is that it not only describes the final biomechanical simulation, but also the workflow how the biomechanical model is constructed from tomographic data. In this way, the MSML can act as a middleware between all tools used in the modeling pipeline. The MSML thus greatly facilitates the prototyping of medical simulation workflows for clinical and research purposes. In this paper, we not only detail the XML-based modeling scheme, but also present a concrete implementation. Different examples highlight the flexibility, robustness and ease-of-use of the approach.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Anthropomatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suwelack
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stoll
authors.affiliation: Institute for Anthropomatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schalck
authors.affiliation: Engineering Mathematics and Computing Lab (EMCL), University of Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Nicolai
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schoch
authors.affiliation: Institute for Anthropomatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
authors.forename: Rüdiger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dillmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bendl
authors.affiliation: Engineering Mathematics and Computing Lab (EMCL), University of Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Heuveline
authors.affiliation: Institute for Anthropomatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Speidel
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D012985:Software Design