I-Corps: Magnetic steering and tracking for minimally invasive medical procedures

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响和商业潜力在于技术的发展，使各种各样的外科/介入手术成为可能，包括血管/气道/胃肠道和组织/器官内手术，使组织损伤最小，而且没有任何辐射暴露。特别是，磁导向可以用于所有涉及针或导管的医疗程序，如活组织检查、支架放置、球囊血管成形术和大脑微电极阵列放置。跟踪系统也可以与任何系留的医疗设备一起使用。此外，这项技术将通过消除人为错误和缩短等待名单而使患者受益；介入外科医生通过消除辐射暴露，改进导管/针头操作，实现实时，高分辨率，3D跟踪；医院通过减少不良事件和诉讼的机会来满足需求。因此，该系统适合介入手术机器人市场，因为它解决了客户，最终用户和患者的痛点。I-Corps项目的基础是技术的发展，以提高导管/针头的可操纵性，同时消除对x射线成像和辐射暴露的需要。磁性转向技术的新颖之处在于，它用磁性牵引机制取代了传统的机械推动，显著改善了对尖端位置的控制，并在身体难以触及的部位实现了转向。此外，不需要承重针轴，它可以由任意柔软的材料制成。这反过来又消除了过度的组织损伤，并使导管/针头能够在高曲率3D路径上转向，并访问当前机器人技术无法访问的位置。此外，目前用于在介入手术中跟踪可操纵手术工具的技术是x射线透视，该技术存在过度辐射暴露和无法捕获软组织图像的问题。所提出的跟踪系统旨在直接解决这些痛点。此外，跟踪系统通过限制导管/针头的展开速度，有助于磁牵引机构的稳定性。因此，所提出的技术显著提高了最先进的导管/针头转向和跟踪，并直接解决了传统技术的痛点。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of technology that enables a vast variety of surgical/interventional procedures including intra-vascular/airways/GI tract and intra-tissue/organ procedures with minimal tissue damage and without any exposure to radiation. In particular, magnetic steering can be used in all medical procedures that involve needles or catheters such as biopsy, stent placement, balloon angioplasty, and microelectrode array placement in the brain. The tracking system can also be used along with any tethered medical device. In addition, this technology will benefit patients through eliminating human error and shorter waitlists; interventional surgeons through eliminating radiation exposure, improving catheter/needle manipulation, and enabling real-time, high-resolution, 3D tracking; and hospitals through reducing chances of adverse events and lawsuits and catching up to the demand. Thus, this system is a fit for the interventional surgical robot market as it addresses the pain points of the customers, end-users, and patients. This I-Corps project is based on the development of technology to improve catheter/needle steerability while eliminating the need for X-ray imaging and radiation exposure. The novelty of the magnetic steering technology is in replacing the conventional mechanical pushing with a magnetic pulling mechanism that significantly improves controlled tip placement and steering in the difficult-to-reach areas in the body. Moreover, there is no need for a load-bearing needle shaft and it can be made of arbitrarily soft materials. This, in turn, eliminates the excessive tissue damage and enables the steering of the catheter/needle on high-curvature 3D paths and accessing locations that are not accessible with current robotic technologies. In addition, the current technology for tracking steerable surgical tools in interventional procedures is X-ray fluoroscopy which suffers from excessive radiation exposure and the inability to capture the image of soft tissues. The proposed tracking system is designed to directly address these pain points. Besides, the tracking system contributes to the stability of the magnetic pulling mechanism by restraining the deployment speed of the catheter/needle. Thus, the proposed technology significantly improves the state-of-the-art catheter/needle steering and tracking and directly addresses the pain points of conventional technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.