Organ Navigator

Games consoles, smart phones, digital paper, depth cameras, face recognition, social networking … So much cool and useful technology. Yet, when it comes to healthcare, things do not feel quite so advanced. Technology has pushed forward in so many areas while progress on some of the tools to look after our own well-being has stalled. For example, the analysis and interpretation of XRay, CT or MR images is still left to slow and tedious human visual inspection; with huge costs in terms of time and resources.

 

Wouldn’t it be great if automatic image analysis technology could help radiologists and clinicians to make their everyday job more efficient and reliable? Wouldn’t it be great if the quantification of lesions or other anomalies was done automatically, so as to provide the doctor with accurate quantitative information about the nature of the problem?

 

At Microsoft Research Cambridge we are helping to transform the way in which healthcare is provided by working on new technology to enable automatic and semiautomatic analysis of n-dimensional medical images.

 

The results of our research will be of great help in measuring anomalies, detecting possible tumours and increasing the efficiency and accuracy of radiologists and clinicians. Ultimately, patients all over the globe will benefit from this technology.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of projects we are currently working on:

• Fast visualisation of 3D CT scans on thin clients

• Semi-automatic 3D segmentation of anatomical structures.

• Automatic recognition and localisation of anatomical structures in CT studies.

• Automatic delineation of Multiple Sclerosis in Magnetic Resonance images of brain.

• Automatic detection and grading of brain tumours.

 

Further resources
Antonio Criminisi - Microsoft Research Researcher