Improving clinical outcomes of image-guided needle-based interventions: development and clinical translation of new approaches

Needle-based percutaneous interventions are among the most common minimally invasive procedures for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Beyond the current pursuit of minimizing the invasiveness of surgical interventions, there is a trend pushing towards enhanced accuracy and personalized procedures. In this context, robotic systems can significantly improve the accuracy of such needle-based interventions. Robot-assisted needle-based interventions have been an active research topic in the past two decades, with numerous robotic devices and technologies investigated and just a few translated into clinical practice. Currently, medical imaging techniques such as ultrasound, computational tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance (MR) are the gold standard to guide needles into the desired location. The recent advancement of imaging technologies allows the visualization of anatomical and functional information, such as detecting and localizing early-stage diseases. The combination of imaging technologies and robotic guidance has created a pathway toward precision intervention and patient-specific treatment. However, bringing new technologies to the operating room to improve the procedure performance and clinical efficacy is not trivial. This workshop aims to bring together researchers and scientists of different backgrounds to provide an opportunity to discuss the challenges for deploying new robotic systems for needle-based interventions.

List of confirmed speakers

• Holden Wu (UCLA Department of Radiological Sciences, USA)
• Jocelyne Trocazz (Université Grenoble-Alpes, France)
• Stefano Stramigioli (University of Twente, Netherlands)
• Mahdi Tavakoli (University of Alberta, Canada)
• Sarthak Misra (University of Twente and University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands)
• Cenk Cavusoglu (Case Western Reserve University, USA)
• Pedro Moreira (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA)
• Iulian Iordachita (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
• Haichong (Kai) Zhang (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA)

Structure:

20 minutes presentation from invited speakers

Link for joining the workshop remotely

link to the virtual room Only for registered attendees

Schedule (tentative):

• 1:30PM Introduction
• 1:40PM Jocelyne Trocazz (Université Grenoble-Alpes, France), “Image and robot-assisted prostate brachytherapy”
• 2:00PM Holden Wu (UCLA Department of Radiological Sciences, USA), Computer-Aided and Robotic Methods for MRI-Guided Needle-Based Interventions
• 2:20PM Sarthak Misra (University of Twente and University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands) Connecting the dots: Online shape sensing of flexible instruments
• 2:40PM Pedro Moreira (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA), Improving targeting accuracy in MRI-guided prostate interventions
• 3:00PM Coffee Break
• 3:30PM Stefano Stramigioli (University of Twente, Netherlands), MRI compatible robotics solutions for clinical care: from actuation technology to future clinical applications
• 3:50PM Mahdi Tavakoli (University of Alberta, Canada), Closed-Loop Control for Needle Steering in Brachytherapy
• 4:10PM Iulian Iordachita (Johns Hopkins University, USA), Needle shape detection for interventional MRI
• 4:30PM Haichong (Kai) Zhang (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA), Needle-aligned ultrasound imaging for percutaneous intervention
• 4:50PM Closing remarks

Organizers

• Pedro Moreira, Ph.D. (Chair, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA)
• Junichi Tokuda, Ph.D. (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA)
• Nobuhiko Hata, Ph.D. (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA)
• Iulian Iordachita, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA)
• Gregory Fischer, Ph.D. (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA)
• Haichong Zhang, Ph.D. (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA)

Contact

Pedro Moreira: plopesdafrotamoreira@bwh.harvard.edu