December 20, 2019
On December 3, the UK Science and Innovation Network (SIN) at the British Embassy in Berlin and the Forum Digital Technologies at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI jointly organized the AI Expert Forum "AI in Minimally Invasive Surgery and Treatment". At the forum, experts from relevant fields of research discussed areas such as computational imaging, computer vision and surgical robotics. They focused not only on the current state of research, but were also challenged to think about future applications or developments in the sector. In addition, a variety of formats was offered, which encouraged active participation. These included open roundtables and moderated panel discussions.
The two Fraunhofer HHI scientists Jean-Claude Rosenthal and Eric Wisotzky participated in the forum with a keynote speech on "Research in Digital Minimally Invasive Surgery at Fraunhofer HHI". The lecture covered their work on image-based support of the surgeon during surgery. The scientists drew on results from three different projects: MultiARC, 3D-Horopter and COMPASS. With the new approaches, the existing scene in the operating room can be reconstructed in 3D, anatomical landmarks can be measured and the disadvantage of keyhole surgery can be reduced. Thus, the approaches are able to become a significant support to the surgeons. Additionally, multispectral imaging can be used to analyze different optical tissue properties and thus differentiate between different tissue types. This measurement and spectral differentiation is particularly advantageous for soft tissue, as it avoids tissue contact, but still allows risk tissue to be identified and, for example, patient-specific sizing of implants.