Computer aided surgery

The research triplet – Computer aided surgery

Throughout the history of medicine, advances in imaging have enabled to expedite progress in medical interventions. At the beginning of the new millennium information and communication technologies are increasingly the driving forces behind this development. Rapid changes in imaging procedures with digital radiography, virtual endoscopy, spiral CT and interventional MR result in an active partnership between clinicians and various computer driven machines. This human-machine partnership is important because it offers the possibility both of significantly improving the efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness of existing clinical procedures and of developing new ones that cannot be performed at all otherwise.

To cover the various aspects and challenges of computer aided medicine an interdisciplinary workforce consisting of the following three research groups has been established: 

modeling and simulation group – Surgical Simulation and Navigation

	Head: Erwin Keeve Development of surgical planning and image-guided navigation systems with special emphasis on deformable modeling and soft tissue simulation.

experimental group – Holography and Laser Technology

	Head: Peter Hering Development of high precision 3D imaging techniques based on holograms and realisation of laser-systems capable to cut hard tissue.

engineering group – Rapid Prototyping

	Heads: Carsten Tille and Hermann Seitz Development of real anatomical models and implants based on individual medical data sets. Prototypes for health care and surgical instruments.