Research
Welcome to the Biomedical Modeling, Visualization and image-guided Navigation (BiMVisIGN) Laboratory
The objective of minimally-invasive interventions is alter the course of disease and improve health by accessing the organs and tissues to be treated through small incisions using adequate instruments, thus reducing the overall patient trauma without compromising the desired therapeutic result.
The Biomedical Modeling, Visualization and Image-guided Navigation laboratory at RIT focuses on the discovery and development of innovative imaging, navigation and visualization techniques and instrumentation to improve the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases through minimally or non-invasive approaches, conducting research across several broad themes:
- medical image processing
- cardiac imaging
- multi-modality image registration and fusion
- modeling and simulation
- 3D and stereoscopic visualization
- augmented, virtual and mixed reality
- instrument tracking
- computer-assisted interventions
- image-guided surgery
Research summary
Our research interests have focused on exploring the use of medical imaging to generate new paradigms for image-guided visualization and navigation for minimally invasive therapy. Cardiac interventions, for instance, have been among the last disciplines to benefit from minimally invasive treatment techniques, mainly due to the challenges associated with access and visualization inside the beating heart. Our research endeavours entail both technologies (image acquisition, surgical tracking, visualization and display) and techniques (image analysis, modeling, evaluation and validation) toward the development, evaluation and pre-clinical integration of image guidance environments for surgical navigation of minimally invasive cardiac interventions.
Research Questions
Can we integrate pre- and intra-operative images to construct visualization environments that resemble the internal anatomy in the region of interest of a specific procedure with sufficient accuracy to enable minimally invasive therapy delivery?
What accuracy can we achieve using optical and electromagnetic tracking systems when navigating surgical instruments to the target of interest using fused medical image as road-map and how can surgical instruments be instrumented efficiently with the tracking technology?
How can we model therapy using pre- and intra-operative patient-specific images and engineering and physical principles to predict tissue response?
Can we build physiologically-equivalent tissue mimicking phantoms that closely emulate the clinical application and employ them to evaluate, test and validate new models, simulations and techniques for guidance and navigation?
What is the optimal approach to visualize several integrates data sources (images and signals) and display the guidance environment in an intuitive manner to fully benefit the clinicians, while minimizing technology foot print in the clinical workflow?
Research Projects
1. Image-guided Navigation Platforms
2. Virtual Anatomy Visualization & Simulation
3. Cardiac Applications
3a. Cardiac image segmentation
3b. Image guidance for mitral valve repair
3c. Modeling and visualization for left atrial ablation therapy
4. Spine Modeling and Surgical Planning Applications