Jens Meier from the research group MAI spent the merry month of May 2013 at the Annenberg Research Park in Los Angeles, USA, to promote the exchange of knowledge between the ICCAS and the Image Processing and Informatics Laboratory (IPILab). The research period contributed to a detailed overview of the research projects from both institutions and showed possibilities for future joint projects.

An important part of the research program was the detailed presentation and a live demonstration of the IT-system oncoflow, developed by Jens Meier at ICCAS and used at the Leipzig University Hospital since March 2013. This innovation received a great response from the local researchers.

The intensive discussions with the local scientists about their project work allowed a detailed insight into their research fields. Furthermore, ideas for concrete joint projects could arise. Thus, bringing together oncoflow and a decision support system from the IPILab is already at the planning stage. An integration of both systems would expand the information base and the possibilities for clinical assistance systems. Another collaborative project could contribute to the support of minimally invasive spinal surgery in neurosurgery.

The research period is an important milestone towards a closer cooperation between the ICCAS and the IPILabs in future, especially, because the research topics of both centers complement each other very well.
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On Wednesday, the 22 May 2013, Stefan Bohn successfully defended his dissertation in computer science.

The thesis entitled “Design of a generic modular IT integration architecture for computer-assisted surgery,” contains the results of the research activities in the field of system integration for the networked digital operating room.

For his doctoral work Dr. Stefan Bohn received the grade magna cum laude.

Congratulations!

Am Mittwoch, dem 22. Mai 2013 wird Stefan Bohn seine am ICCAS erarbeitete Dissertation im Fachgebiet Informatik im Paulinum der Universität Leipzig öffentlich verteidigen.

Die Doktorarbeit mit dem Titel „Design einer generischen modularen IT-Integrationsarchitektur für die computerassistierte Chirurgie“ enthält die Ergebnisse der Forschungsaktivitäten auf dem Gebiet der Systemintegration für den vernetzten digitalen Operationssaal.

Das ICCAS-Team wünscht Stefan Bohn viel Erfolg!

Link zum Einladungsschreiben

With a lecture about knowledge-based systems to support personalized medicine Dr. Kerstin Denecke was involved in the EFMI Special Topic Conference Data and Knowledge for Medical Decision Support, which was held from 17 to 19 April 2013 in Prague.

The speaker pointed out that personalized medicine is becoming more and more important by advances in genome analysis and accentuated the need for including information coming from patients (eg via online diaries) in the treatment planning and diagnosis. The lecture introduced requirements that must be considered in the development of such decision support systems.

Dr. Denecke refers with this topic to her young research at ICCAS. The DPM group, whose leadership she recently assumed, is concerned with the creation of a new patient model, which aims at unproblematic data integration and semantic interoperability. Even including genomic data into the new patient record is not only pure future thinking.

The Special Topic Conference is an important forum, where scientists present recent scientific contributions in the field of medical computer science. It is organized by the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI).

Link to the event

On the occasion of Girls’ Day, on Thursday the 25th of April 2013, ICCAS welcomed again inquisitive girls who gained deeper insight into the scientific work in the field of computer assisted surgery.

The girls were invited to interesting presentations of five ICCAS-scientists and benefit from their experiences in the world of research. This was followed by a practical presentation in the high tech demo-OR. Here science was to experience at first hand when Stefan Bohn demonstrated the research activities on a model.

The scientists hope the insights helped the participants to make their subsequent decision for a scientific or technical degree easier.

As part of the Connecting Healthcare IT 2013 the first public status OR.NET symposium took place on 10 April in Berlin. There Stefan Bohn and Max Rockstroh participated in the project status meeting. OR.NET deals with secure dynamic networking of medical devices and information technology in the operating room and clinic.

Within the consortium ICCAS supports the identification of appropriate clinical applications. Therefore discussions with various clinical partners (Heart Center, ENT, neurosurgery) were held and their requirements for a common structure with the project partners were shared. In the future course of the project an ‘Integrationdemonstrator’ should be installed in the ICCAS demo OP, in order to evaluate the developed connectors, interfaces and protocols.

Besides the presentations of the project leaders of the consortium a very active exchange with the project partners took place. Specifically the demonstration of the previous project smartOR and the explanations of the technical solutions were of particular interest. A subsequent exhibition tour left a comprehensive impression of the current developments in the field of healthcare IT.
Link to the event

The team of ICCAS is pleased to welcome Dr. Kerstin Denecke, who leads the research group Digital Patient and Process Model since February 2013.

Dr. Denecke studied computer science with the focus on medicine and recently worked at the L3S Research Center, at the University of Hanover. The young scientist has extensive experience in the fields of text analysis and information extraction from medical texts, which is a fundamental requirement for building model-based patient records. During her teaching position at the University of Applied Sciences Berlin she dealt with the visualization of medical data, which brought her in connection with ICCAS.

Dr. Denecke would like to incorporate her knowledge into the young research field of computer assisted surgery. The computer scientist and her new team work on the specification of digital patient- and decision-making models. Furthermore they consider improvements in the medical knowledge- and decision management.

The team of ICCAS wishes Dr. Denecke and her project team a successful start at the Leipzig Innovation Centre.

Der aktuelle CURAC-Newsletter gibt u.a. Auskunft über die Vorjahresaktivitäten des Innovationszentrums für Computerassistierte Chirurgie als Mitglied der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Computer- und Roboterassistierte Chirurgie. Diese fördert die wissenschaftliche Arbeit und deren praktische Umsetzung in diesem Forschungsbereich.

Link zum CURAC-Newsletter Februar 2013

The results of the course evaluations of the lecture “Computer Assisted Surgery” for the WS 2012/13 at ICCAS is very respectable. In almost all respects the elective course in human medicine was assessed more positively by the participating students in comparison to last year’s survey. Accordingly, not only the overall quality of the lectures increased, but also the performance of the teachers.

This year ICCAS again offers interesting lectures in computer assisted surgery for medical students at the University of Leipzig. The courses will provide basic technical knowledge in order to use and reflect the new techniques of computer assisted surgery. Applications and case studies from different surgical fields show the current state of technology and its practical use. Furthermore, the particular assistance devices can be tested by students in the ICCAS – demo OP.

The visit of Stanislaw Tillich was the highlight of the oncoflow-presentation by ICCAS young scientist Jens Meier of the group Model Based Automation and Integration at this year’s CeBIT in Hanover. Saxony’s “Minister President” was given a detailed introduction to the IT system, developed at ICCAS and became familiar with the core activities of the Innovation Center.

The presence of ICCAS at the most important event for the digital world not only supported the public perception of the institution, but also the exchange of ideas with professionals from the field of medical informatics and leading developers in the area of medical data and process integration, such as the Siemens AG and SAP. This resulted in innovative ideas for the next steps of development. Furthermore Jens Meier got a very positive feedback for the system oncoflow and its previously implemented assistance functions.

The novelty, presented at the special show “Research for the Future”, is a modular IT framework that supports data and process integration in the oncology treatment process. The user-friendly system is already used at the Department of Otolaryngology at the Leipzig University Hospital.

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