MOPED Follow On

位于天文研究所的爱丁堡大学布莱克福德分析小组开发了一种用于磁共振成像（MRI）扫描的先进软件工具，通过消除患者在扫描期间保持完全静止的要求，可以纠正运动并增强和改善图像。移动导致十分之一的扫描仪部分损坏或完全无法使用，每台扫描仪每年浪费12万英镑。在英国，每年浪费的扫描费用总计达3000万英镑，在全球范围内超过13亿英镑。该技术的核心是获得专利的mped算法，该算法可以实时去除这些运动伪影，从而产生适合于诊断的高质量图像，否则无法获得这些图像。重要的是，这项技术使MRI扫描能够用于重症患者和不服用镇静剂就无法保持静止的幼儿，并进一步将以前仅在研究环境中可能的先进成像技术带入常规临床应用。该公司的战略是分拆出一家名为Blackford Analysis的公司，该公司最初将向研究机构销售软件，然后将现有软件授权给大型MRI制造商。这将维持一家高速增长的公司，提供基于使用MOPED算法平台开发的应用程序的其他解决方案。基础技术平台已在其他领域得到验证，并成功应用于天体物理学中的光谱分析和图像处理。该公司将通过一系列解决面部识别、高光谱成像和工业质量控制的产品，扩展到医疗领域及其他领域的数据分析问题。爱丁堡大学将授予布莱克福德分析公司在全球范围内的独家知识产权，并可自由开发进一步的应用领域。Blackford分析团队由经验丰富的临床医生和物理学家组成，他们设计算法并编写软件，以设计与符合FDA要求和CE批准的ISO 9000:2001制度兼容的质量体系。该技术的一个适合演示的原型已经到位，进一步的开发正在进行中，以生产一个软件包，可用于对现有技术进行基准测试。知名临床医生和主要制造商的兴趣已得到保证。后续基金的资源将用于进一步发展医学影像应用，并通过市场研究和技术开发探索基于mped算法的其他应用。

The University of Edinburgh's Blackford Analysis team, based at the Institute for Astronomy, has developed an advanced software tool for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanning which corrects movement and enhances and improves images by removing the requirement for the patient to remain entirely still for the duration of the scan. Movement renders one tenth of all scans either partially corrupted or totally unusable, wasting £120,000 per scanner each year. This totals to £30 million of wasted scans per year in the UK and greater than £1.3 billion worldwide. At the heart of the technology is the patented MOPED algorithm, which can remove these motion artefacts in real-time, resulting in high quality images suitable for diagnosis which could not otherwise have been obtained. Importantly, this technology enables MRI scanning for severely ill patients and young children who cannot remain still without sedation, and further brings advanced imaging techniques, formerly only possible in a research environment, into routine clinical use. The strategy is to spin out a company, Blackford Analysis, which will initially sell to research organisations and then license its existing software to large MRI manufacturers. This will sustain a high growth company providing other solutions based on applications developed using the MOPED algorithm platform. The underlying technology platform has been demonstrated in other areas, with successful application to spectral analysis and image processing in astrophysics. The Company will expand to data analysis problems in the medical field and beyond through a pipeline of further products addressing facial recognition, hyperspectral imaging and industrial quality control. The University of Edinburgh will grant Blackford Analysis exclusive worldwide rights on the intellectual property, with freedom to develop further application areas as they become apparent. The Blackford Analysis team consists of experienced clinicians and physicists designing algorithms and writing software to a quality system designed to be compatible with an ISO 9000:2001 regime compliant with the requirements of the FDA and for CE approval. A prototype of the technology, suitable for presentations, is already in place and further development is underway to produce a software package which can be used to benchmark against existing techniques. Interest from luminary clinicians and major manufacturers has been secured. Resources from the Follow on Fund would be used to further the development of the medical imaging application, and exploration of other applications based on the MOPED algorithm, via market studies and technical development.