Interventional Centre partner in new European Commission FP7 Project: IIIOS

The Initial Training Networks project IIIOS is initiated by Andreas Melzer at University of Dundee. Reserarchers from the Interventional Centre have formerly collaborated with Dr Melzer through the Society for Medical Innovation and Technology (SMIT). The Interventional Centre will be responsible for research and training in MR image guided cardiovascular procedures. The Interventional Centre will participate both as a clinical and technological partner in this field. Research will include new concepts to improve the intraoperative MR suit and the hybrid angiographic room through the development of new intraoperative image navigation tools. Ole Jakob Elle and Per Kristian Hol will coordinate the participation from IVC at a technological and clinical level respectively, and Frederic Courivaud will be responsible for the MR-related technology development.
IVS will be funded by 74 person months and given a total budget of approximately 4 mill NOK over four years by the project. The funding might be subject to changes through negotiations with the European Commision.

The scope of the present consortium is to provide technology and training for the integration of ultrasound and biophotonics based imaging guidance with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to define the specs of an Integrated Interventional Imaging Operating System (III OS) aimed at minimal invasive treatment of common life-threatening disorders, e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disease and structural heart defects. Effective therapy of these conditions will require a range of safe surgical and interventional devices used with the necessary visualization and tracking under real-time image guidance. The consortium includes a critical mass of industrial and university research institute partners with high expertise in design, development, and manufacture of these devices and instruments. To ensure medical the safety and economical usability of the system and to allow an optimal integration into the future hospital workflow, 6 university hospitals will contribute their clinical and administrative expertise to the consortium in the fields of Interventional Radiology/Cardiology, Anaesthesia, Oncology, General and Cardiovascular Surgery and preclinical Image guided procedures. The consortium of the IIIOS research and training process includes two Biomedical Technology Societies: DGBMT and SMIT&MEDIS Foundation in Rumania providing expert networking and conference organization. The Associated Partners involved in the consortium and will play a key role in the exchange of knowledge and expertise to the new member states of the EU through hosting conferences such SMIT 2009 in Sinaia (www.smit2009.com).
Project Objectives:
The project level objective is the development of the “Integrated Interventional Imaging Operating System”. The partner level objectives will be verified through the publication of new advances in the following;
The consortium:
1(Coord’or) University of Dundee UNIVDUN UK
2 The University Court of St.Andrews USTAN UK
3 The Interventional Centre, Oslo University Hospital - Rikshospitalet RH-IVS NOR
4 Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU NOR
5 University of Homburg Saar UHS GER
6 Delft University of Technology UAD NETH
7 MR Comp GmbH MRC GER
8 University of Luebeck UOL GER
9 Masaryk University ICRC CZ 10 GE Medical systems GE FRA