"Living Laboratories" Across the Continuum of Care:
Innovative Spaces and Virtual Places

5.26.2009 Advanced Procedure Room SPEAKER: Clare Tempany, MB BAO, BCH: BWH, HMS MODERATOR: Ron Newbower, PhD: CIMIT

Forum Summary

Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is in the process of building an Advanced Multimodality Image-Guided Operating room (AMIGO) to maximize the usefulness of modern imaging modalities in surgery.  The AMIGO project seeks to combine imaging systems with robotic devices so that it is easier for surgeons to perform a number of minimally invasive procedures, such as the resection of tumors invisible to the naked eye.  The ultimate goal of the project is to make it possible to introduce cutting-edge molecular imaging techniques into the operating room.

Before focusing on molecular imaging, the leaders of the AMIGO project are seeking to integrate magnetic resonance imaging and surgery, a task that involves a number of challenges.  Obtaining magnet-compatible equipment for surgeons and anesthesiologists is not trivial, and it is also important to recognize that the use of MRI during surgery is unsafe in patients with certain medical conditions.  The new operating room at BWH will soon be used to perform a diverse set of procedures including neurosurgery and percutaneous ablations.            

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