Computational Models For Surgical Navigation

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This research program can be summarized simply as the pursuit of answer to the question: "How can computer science improve a surgeon's understanding of the human body?'' Mathematical modeling and virtual reality can provide tools for modeling organisms, predicting outcomes of proposed changes, and guiding a surgeon in making these changes; in orthopedics we find that images, motion and manufactured components are routinely combined in advanced surgical procedures. This work will use the applicant's expertise in computing, and considerable experience in surgery, to give new theoretical results and implementations that will directly improve the health of Canadians. This will be done, first, by integrating computer technology into North America's first operating room to have both 3D X-ray scanners and 3D trackers for surgical instruments. The goal of this part of the research is to provide surgeons with fast, extremely accurate ways of operating on anatomical regions that are normally invisible and/or inaccessible using current surgical techniques. The second part of this research will develop computational models to describe complex shapes, mainly of skeletal bones. This will bring mathematical descriptions, from areas such as General Relativity in physics, to body parts such as the hip joint. These models will improve the ways that surgeons understand the human body, plan surgical procedures to correct highly prevalent diseases such as joint arthritis, and improve preoperative and postoperative treatments such as physiotherapy. If the research results are achieved then Canadians will enjoy greater quality of life from individualized analysis and treatment of joint diseases that affect a large proportion of our aging population.