Challenges in image-guided therapy system design.
System development for image-guided therapy (IGT), or image-guided interventions (IGI), continues to be an area of active interest across academic and industry groups. This is an emerging field that is growing rapidly: major academic institutions and medical device manufacturers have produced IGT technologies that are in routine clinical use, dozens of high-impact publications are published in well regarded journals each year, and several small companies have successfully commercialized sophisticated IGT systems. In meetings between IGT investigators over the last two years, a consensus has emerged that several key areas must be addressed collaboratively by the community to reach the next level of impact and efficiency in IGT research and development to improve patient care. These meetings culminated in a two-day workshop that brought together several academic and industrial leaders in the field today. The goals of the workshop were to identify gaps in the engineering infrastructure available to IGT researchers, develop the role of research funding agencies and the recently established US-based National Center for Image Guided Therapy (NCIGT), and ultimately to facilitate the transfer of technology among research centers that are sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Workshop discussions spanned many of the current challenges in the development and deployment of new IGT systems. Key challenges were identified in a number of areas, including: validation standards; workflows, use-cases, and application requirements; component reusability; and device interface standards. This report elaborates on these key points and proposes research challenges that are to be addressed by a joint effort between academic, industry, and NIH participants.
Dimaio
Simon
S
Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis St., Boston, MA 02115, USA. simond@bwh.harvard.edu
Kapur
Tina
T
Cleary
Kevin
K
Aylward
Stephen
S
Kazanzides
Peter
P
Vosburgh
Kirby
K
Ellis
Randy
R
Duncan
James
J
Farahani
Keyvan
K
Lemke
Heinz
H
Peters
Terry
T
Lorensen
William Bill
WB
Gobbi
David
D
Haller
John
J
Clarke
Laurence Larry
LL
Pizer
Stephen
S
Taylor
Russell
R
Galloway
Robert
R
Fichtinger
Gabor
G
Hata
Nobuhiko
N
Lawson
Kimberly
K
Tempany
Clare
C
Kikinis
Ron
R
Jolesz
Ferenc
F
D000465:Algorithms; D019295:Computational Biology; D003199:Computer Systems; D006801:Humans; D051188:Knowledge Bases; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000639:trends*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012371:Robotics; D012984:Software; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000639:trends*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States