Seminar by Dr. Marta Kersten-Oertel (McConnell Brain Imaging Centre)

Speaker: Dr. Marta Kersten-Oertel
                McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Hospital

Title: Augmented Reality in Image-guided Neurosurgery

Date: Wednesday, February 10th, 2016

Time: 10:30AM - 12PM

Place: EV1.162

ABSTRACT

Augmented reality visualization is becoming increasingly studied and used in medical and clinical applications. In this talk I will focus on its use within the domain of image-guided neurosurgery (IGNS), and in particular surgery for cerebral vascular malformations. In neurovascular surgery, the surgeon uses a microscope that enables a magnified view of the region of interest; however, the microscope view provides no information about the anatomy below the visible surface. Therefore, the burden is with the surgeon to map preoperative patient images (e.g. MRI or CT) from the IGNS system to the patient on the operating room table in order to understand the topology and locations of vessels and pertinent anatomy below the visible surface of the brain. This type of spatial mapping is not trivial, is time consuming, may disrupt the surgical workflow, and may be prone to error.

Augmented reality has been proposed as a solution to address some of the shortcomings of traditional IGNS systems. With augmented reality, the view of the operating field is merged with the preoperative patient data creating a comprehensive visualization. This facilitates the understanding of the topology and location of vessels with respect to the visible brain surface. This type of visualization has the potential to reduce surgical time and increase surgical precision. In this seminar I will explore how to create effective augmented reality visualizations that can aid surgeons in carrying out specific surgical tasks. Specifically, we will look at: (1) how to best volume render the virtual cerebral vascular images to create an effective spatial and depth understanding of the vessels and (2) how to merge virtual and real images to create effective and comprehensive augmented reality visualizations. Results on the use of the developed augmented reality system at the Montreal Neurological Institute & Hospital (MNI/H) in series of clinical cases will be presented. Lastly, avenues of future work in the area of developing and evaluating new visualization and interaction methods in computer-assisted interventions in and outside of the medical field will be discussed. 

BIO

Marta Kersten-Oertel is a postdoctoral fellow at the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre in the Montreal Neurological Hospital. Her research is focused on developing and evaluating new visualization and interaction techniques in the context of image-guided neurosurgery. In particular, she is interested in improving the spatial and depth understanding of volume rendered medical data and studying the impact of augmented and virtual reality visualization on particular surgical tasks. Marta received a BSc degree in Computer Science and a BA degree in Art History from Queen’s University (Kingston) in 2002. In 2005 she completed an MSc in Computer Science at Queen’s University and in 2015 her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at McGill University (Montreal). She has also worked as a research assistant at the University of Ottawa and the University of Tübingen (Germany).