How can we optimize the quality, speed and costs of (bio)medical images?

With better (bio)medical imaging, we can improve the precision of our cancer treatments – surgery, radiotherapy, and drug therapies. Ideally, you want to be able to create and use real-time imaging during a procedure. Our current imaging takes too long to be able to facilitate this. So we aim to optimize the speed. And the cost, so we can increase the use of imaging. And by improving the quality of our imaging and developing new imaging techniques, we create a clearer picture of the condition while being more precise in our treatment.

Hyperspectral camera

We are investigating the application of hyperspectral cameras to increase cancer surgeries. We want to use this technique, which originated in geology and space travel, in breast cancer surgery. Using light, these cameras can distinguish between tumor tissue and regular tissue. We are investigating whether this can help us determine whether the margins still contain cancer cells during the procedure itself, so we know whether sufficient tissue has been removed. That is an improvement over our current technique in which a pathologist analyzes the tissue in hindsight and patients have to undergo another surgical procedure if the margins contain cancer cells.

Hyperspectral imaging

Better medical imaging can help us improve diagnostics and treatment for patients. One way to improve imaging is through research on hyperspectral imaging in the operating room. Dinusha Veluponnar explains more in this video.

Faster MRI scans

We are investigating the possibilities to speed up MRI with, for example, artificial intelligence. Faster MRI scans would not only be cheaper, they would also allow for much more advanced real-time applications. They could facilitate a way to continuously monitor the patients and act according to the results of the scan. Researchers are working on the development of a ‘smarter’ and shorter MRI, which could make MRI suitable for the early detection of breast cancer.