Deformable anatomical models for image guidance and simulation of medical procedures

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The applicant and his group's research is in the area of biomedical engineering, and is concerned with methods of obtaining anatomical models that include tissue deformation and methods of guiding and simulating medical procedures, including robot-assisted procedures, based on such models. We will consider needle-based procedures and robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery. The research area that involves the imaging of tissue deformation, or strain, and of tissue viscoelastic properties derived from strain, is called elastography. Elastography involves the application of an external tissue excitation, such as the compression of the ultrasound probe on the body, the estimation of the resulting tissue deformation, the modeling of the deformation using a model, and the use of the model to compute images of tissue mechanical properties. Medical simulators allow physicians to practice a procedure by simulating its salient features, such as the "haptic" (force feedback) feel of maneuvering virtual instruments, and the "look" of the images (ultrasound, camera) synthesized from the model. Minimally invasive robotic surgery uses robotic arms to copy and scale down the motion of the surgeon's hands. Haptic feedback is not provided by the medical robots available today. The objectives of the proposed research are: (i) To optimize ultrasound elastography, by developing new tissue exciters, by incorporating transducer sensing (position/orientation, force, acceleration), and by using multiple imaging arrays. (ii) To develop methods for patient specific simulation of needle insertion under ultrasound guidance. We will develop simulation acceleration techniques that allow the manual positioning of a virtual ultrasound transducer in real time, with haptic feedback. (iii) To develop the methodology for haptic display of surgical tools based on elastography and explore their integration with the da Vinci surgical system.