Image guidance is a key enabling technology for millions of interventional procedures annually in medicine. Biopsies, ablative procedures, energy-based therapies, as well as minimally invasive and open procedures all rely on real-time feedback from imaging in order to be performed safely and effectively. In current practice, this feedback is predominantly provided by ultrasound (US) as it offers safe, real-time imaging for low cost. However, ultrasound often has poor image quality and is difficult to manage, particularly for interventions requiring high precision. These issues have led many research groups and several companies to investigate methods for enhanced image guidance.
The vision of this proposal is to advance ultrasound-guided cancer therapy with an innovative, low-cost, and self-contained navigation device which is being developed by Clear Guide Medical LLC, a small business spun out of the CISST ERC. The proposed device will enable the system to perform dynamic registration to a preoperative diagnostic image. The result will be a "Body GPS" system that is able to localize the probe in "body coordinates." This platform will then be further developed to provided targeting information via real-time, on patient targeting display.
The principle objectives are: 1) to develop algorithms to calibrate the elements of the system; 2) to provide surface representations of the patient via structured light stereo; 3) to develop projection modes for on-patient targeting display; and 4) to evaluate the resulting projection methods in a simulated biopsy environment. Objectives 1 and 2 will be performed in collaboration with the CISST ERC; while objectives 3 and 4 will be led by Clear Guide Medical.
One of the core research thrusts of the CISST ERC is the development of new technologies for percutaneous therapy (that is medical procedures where access to inner organs or other tissue is done via needle-puncture of the skin, rather than by using an "open" approach where inner organs or tissue are exposed). To create a viable device, it will be necessary to combine advanced methods in computer vision and ultrasound imaging with new methods for on-patient targeting display. The project team is led by PI Stolka, the head of engineering for Clear Guide Medical and an expert on ultrasound systems, and ERC PI Etienne-Cummings, and expert on compact computational imaging system. They are assisted by co-PI Boctor, an expert in ultrasound imaging and image guidance and co-PI Hager, CEO of Clear Guide Medical and an expert in computer vision.
