BioMEMS
Several new projects have been derived by making bridges with the field of MEMS – Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems. MEMS use techniques from semiconductor computer chip manufacturing to create new devices. For example, Dr. Chiao of Mechanical Engineering is leading a project to design a new implantable device to treat disease. Our specialty, ultrasound, plays a […]
Prostate Brachytherapy
Imaging, segmentation, guidance and dosimetry for prostate brachytherapy Brachytherapy is a widely used treatment for localized prostate cancer and it consists of the ultrasound-guided trans-perineal insertion of radioactive sources or “seeds” into the prostate to kill cancerous tissue. The insertion is performed by a radiation oncologist who uses a guiding template to insert needles into […]
Adaptive Spatial Compounding of Ultrasound
Spinal ultrasound in a “difficult” patient We have several projects aimed at improving the overall image quality of ultrasound images. The main concept underlying this research is to obtain multiple images of an anatomical region from different points of view and then compound (combine) these images together into a single image that highlights the anatomical […]
Ultrasound Guided Robotic Surgery
Together with Dr. Nguan of Vancouver General Hospital, we are working on the integration of ultrasound into the Da Vinci surgical robot by Intuitive Surgical. Details to be added soon
Ultrasound Elastography
Identification of tissue parameters using ultrasound vibro-elastography With post-doctoral fellow Hani Eskandari (co-supervised with R. Rohling), Ph.D. students Reza Zahiri andAli Baghani (co-supervised with R. Rohling). Funded by an NSERC Strategy Partnership Grant. Real-time strain imaging of elastography phantom shown here. Vibro-elastography is an extension of static elastography and was developed with Emre Turgay and Rob Rohling. As illustrated below, […]
Interventional Ultrasound
Interventional ultrasound refers to diagnostic or therapeutic minimally-invasive procedures guided by real-time ultrasound imaging. Examples of this are needle insertions for the extraction of tissue (biopsy), for the delivery of cancer-treating seeds (brachytherapy), and for the delivery of anesthesia for pain relief of labour (epidural). As part of a NSERC/CIHR grant on epidural anesthesia, we […]
Diagnostic Ultrasound
Prostate Cancer Diagnosis With an annual death toll of over 4200 in Canada, and more than 500,000 new cases per year in the Western hemisphere, prostate cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer and second leading cancer-related cause of death in men. The routine diagnostic method for prostate cancer is histopathologic analysis of tissue […]
Past Projects
Completed of Dormant Research Projects Teleoperation and Haptic Interfaces Haptic simulation of interacting rigid bodies 5-DOF twin-pantograph haptic pen Demo Video 3-DOF planar twin-pantograph haptic interface Demo Video Control for teleoperation and virtual environments UBC 6-DOF magnetically levitated haptic interfaces Robotic Tools for Medical Diagnostic and Surgery Screening system for Deep Vein Thrombosis Robot-assisted medical ultrasound Demo Video […]
Open-Source Software for IGT
SimITK and SimVTK SimITK/SimVTK development environment enables rapid prototyping of image analysis, visualization, and image-guided surgery techniques. SimITK/VTK is an implementation of the ITK and VTK C++ libraries in Matlab, specifically the Simulink visual programming environment. The advantage to this visual programming approach compared to scripting or C++ applications, are short development times and high […]
Image Segmentation and Registration
Elastic Registration of Ultrasound Images We have developed a series of new registration techniques that utilize attribute vectors to select similar feature points in consecutive ultrasound volumes. The primary advantage of these techniques is their low computational complexity and real time performance. These methods have been tested on images of the liver as well as […]