














Imaging techniques like X-ray and MRI are invaluable for treating a wide variety of illnesses and injuries. The challenge remains to shorten the lapse of time between image acquisition and procedure. Patient preference for minimally invasive surgery makes real-time imaging information vital.
Image Guided Therapy (IGT) techniques help improve therapeutic outcomes. By providing precise ways to "visualize" intra-procedural anatomical changes in real time, IGT helps clarify a surgeon's understanding of the patients' anatomy and enables minimally invasive procedures to be performed inside solid organs. Guided by real-time imaging, surgeons can make decisions based on accurate data-sometimes the crucial difference between life and death.
CIMIT's Image Guided Therapy Program is focused on providing precise high-resolution, three-dimensional ways to "visualize" intra-procedural changes in real time, allowing minimally invasive surgery to be performed on solid organs that would otherwise require traditional surgical procedures.
FY 2011 - 2008 Image Guided Therapy Projects |
||||
| YEAR | PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR | INSTITUTION | PROJECT TITLE | |
| 2011 | Nathalie Agar | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | Intraoperative Stereotactic Molecular Imaging of Tumor Boundaries by Mass Spectrometry | |
| 2011 | Dianne Sacco | Massachusetts General Hospital | Advanced Ureteroscope Navigation System for Calculi Removal | |
| 2011 | Junichi Tokuda | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | Robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy guided by patient-specific models | |
| 2010 | Alexandra Golby, MD | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | A hybrid optic-electromagnetic surgical tooltip tracking system for neurosurgery | |
| 2010 | Stefan Tullius, MD, PhD | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | A system to measure continuous flow and perfusion to ensure successful kidney transplation | |
| 2010 | Seung-Schik Yoo, PhD, MBA | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | Direct functional brain mapping using image-guided focused ultrasound | |
| 2009 | Gerald Denis, PhD | Boston University | Ultrasound-directed delivery of cancer chemotherapeutic drugs | |
| 2009 | Fiona Fennessy, PhD | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | Computer-assisted tumor blood vessel tortuosity analysis at 3T, as a method of assessing ablative therapy response | |
| 2009 | Felipe Fregni, MD, PhD | Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center | The effect of transcranial direct current stimulation combined with arm training using glove-ArMEO robotic device on motor recovery in traumatic brain injury survivors | |
| 2009 - 2008 | Nobuhiko Hata, PhD | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | Swimming Capsule Endoscope for Diagnosis and Treatment of Small Intestine | |
| 2008 | Yolonda Colson, MD, PhD | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | Validation of Imaging System for Near-Infrared Image Guided Sentinel Lymph Node Dissection in Lung Cancer | |
| 2008 | Homer Pien, PhD | Massachusetts General Hospital | A Multidisciplinary Approach to Improving Perfusion Imaging | |
Recent Publications by CIMIT Investigators |
|||
| INVESTIGATOR/AUTHOR | PUBLICATION | ARTICLE | DATE |
| Stylopoulos N, Vosburgh KG | Surg Innov. 14(2):113-21 | Assessing technical skill in surgery and endoscopy: a set of metrics and an algorithm (C-PASS) to assess skills in surgical and endoscopic procedures. | 2007 |
| Vosburgh KG, Stylopoulos N, Estepar RS, Ellis RE, Samset E, Thompson CC | Gastrointest Endosc. 2007 May; 5(6):866-70 | EUS with CT improves efficiency and structure identification over conventional EUS | 2007 |
| Dimaio, S., Kapur, T., Cleary, K., Aylward, S., Kazanzides, P., Vosburgh, K., Ellis, R., Duncan, J., Farahani, K., Lemke, H., Peters, T., Lorensen, W. B., Gobbi, D., Haller, J., Clarke, L. L., Pizer, S., Taylor, R., Galloway, Jr., R., Fichtinger, G., Hata, N., Lawson, K., Tempany, C., Kikinis, R., Jolesz, F. | Neuroimage 37 Suppl 1:S144-51 | Challenges in Image Guided Therapy System Design | 2007 |
| Estepar, R. S., Stylopoulos, N., Ellis, R., Samset, E., Westin, C. F., Thompson, C., Vosburgh, K. | Comput Aided Surg 12 (6):311-24 | An Endoscopic Ultrasound Navigation System for Transgastric Access Procedures | 2007 |
| Hoshino, K., Ly, H. Q., Frangioni, J. V., Hajjar, R. J. | Prog Cardiovasc Dis 49(6):414-20 | In Vivo Tracking in Cardiac Stem Cell Based Therapy | 2007 |
| Krissian, K., Westin, C. F., Kikinis, R., Vosburgh, K. G. | IEEE Trans Image Process 16(5):1412-20 | Oriented Speckle Reducing Anisotropic Diffusion | 2007 |
| Parungo, C. P., Soybel, D. I., Colson, Y. L., Kim, S. W., Ohnishi, S., DeGrand, A. M., Laurence, R. G., Soltesz, E. G., Chen, F. Y., Cohn, L. H., Bawendi, M. G., Frangioni, J. V. | Ann Surg Oncol 14(2):286-98 | Lymphatic Drainage of the Peritoneal Space: A Pattern Dependent on Bowel Lymphatics | 2007 |
Image Guided Therapy at the CIMIT Forum and Past Events |
|||
| EVENT | DATE | SPEAKERS | DETAIL |
| Forum: Stroke Prevention and Therapy | Apr. 15, 2008 | Michael H. Lev, MD: MGH |
Patient Selection for Novel Stroke Therapy Using |
| Forum: Virtual Meets Reality in Image Guided Intervention | Apr. 8, 2008 | David Hawkes, PhD, FREng, FInstP, FIPEM: University College London and co-Founder, IXICO Ltd. Polina Golland, PhD: MIT |
• Integrating Models and Imaging to Guide Interventions • Functional Hierarchy: Representation and Modeling of Spatial Patterns of Activation in fMRI |
| Forum: Imaging Leads to Improvement of Medical Care |
Oct. 2, 2007 |
Gordon Harris, PhD; MGH, HMS Leonard Kaban, DMD, MD; MGH, Harvard School of Dental Medicine |
•3D Imaging in Radiology •Bone Lengthening by Distraction Osteogenesis (DO) |
| Forum: Developments in Computer Tomography (CT) | Jan. 16, 2007 | George Chen, PhD; MGH Rajiv Gupta, MD, PhD; MGH, HMS |
• Functional CT: Visualization of Dynamic Processes Using Computed Tomography • Image Guided Radiotherapy of Moving Targets |
Image Guided Therapy News |
||
| ARTICLE TITLE | PUBLICATION | DATE |
| Mass High Tech | May 1, 2009 | |
| Robopsy Takes Top Award at ASME Innovation Showcase | Press Release | Nov. 12, 2008 |
| Dr. Vosburgh is PI of Research Team that Wins SBIR Award | Press Release | Oct. 8, 2008 |
| Open Source Research Tool | Digital Healthcare & Productivity.com | Sep. 30, 2008 |
| Endoscopes Push Imaging Boundaries: Dating Back Centuries, Endoscopy Takes Advantage of Today’s Cutting Edge Technologies | Advanced Imaging Magazine | July 8, 2008 |
| He develops robotics to assist surgery | Boston Globe | May 7, 2007 |
| Tiny Souped-Up Scope
|
Technology Review | Oct. 20, 2006 |
Program Leaders
Ferenc Jolesz, MD
CIMIT RESPONSIBILITIES
Co-Program Leader,
Image Guided Therapy
Ron Kikinis, MD
CIMIT RESPONSIBILITIES
Co-Program Leader,
Image Guided Therapy

![]()
Related Links
National Center for Image-Guided Therapy Website
AMIGO:
Advanced Multimodality Image Guided Operating Room
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
