Dr Stamatia Giannarou - CMIC/WEISS Joint Seminar Series

Invited Speaker: Dr Stamatia Giannarou, Lecturer in Surgical Cancer Technology and Imaging – Imperial College London

Title:  Cognitive Vision in Robotic Surgery

Abstract: 

With recent advances in medical imaging and surgical robotics, surgical oncology is entering a new era that is set to bring major healthcare and socio-economic benefits. The main goal of surgical oncology is to achieve complete resection of cancerous tissue with minimal iatrogenic injury to surrounding tissue. In practice, this often presents a formidable challenge to surgeons. Surgery on tumours residing within the brain is particularly demanding, and the prognosis for patients afflicted with such tumours remains very poor. Intrinsic brain tumours are highly infiltrative making it difficult to distinguish tumour tissue from surrounding tissue. Moreover, it is imperative to preserve unaffected brain tissue, which is delicate, often eloquent, and has little capacity for regeneration. The aim of my research is to integrate multimodal intraoperative imaging and navigation technologies into a cognitive robotic platform. In this talk, I will present an intraoperative vision system for surgical navigation and real-time tissue characterisation during robot-assisted neurosurgery to improve both the efficacy and safety of tumour resections. The focus will be on the recovery of 3D morphological structures in the presence of tissue deformation, the efficient robot-assisted tissue scanning with imaging probes and the tissue characterisation for on-line diagnosis support.

Bio: 

Stamatia (Matina) Giannarou received the MEng degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Democritus University of Thrace, Greece in 2003, the MSc degree in communications and signal processing and the Ph.D. degree in object recognition from the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, UK in 2004 and 2008, respectively. Currently she is a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, Imperial College London, UK. Her main research interests include visual recognition and surgical vision.

Chair: Evans Mazomenos