Marie Curie Fellowships provide
European placements for pre and post-doctoral researchers, usually
up to the age of 35, and for experienced researchers. Fellowships
are available in any scientific discipline that contributes to the
objectives of the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5). Applicants to this
activity are young and experienced researchers and host organisations
in academia and industry.
MedCom has got three fellowship positions for the Marie Curie Industry
Host Fellowship. One of them is still vacant. This fellowship is open
to all citizens of the EU and associated countries and is entitled:
"Innovative 3D Medical Systems for Treatment and Diagnosis."
The candidates will be involved in RTD activities of the company,
especially in the following fields:
Development of 'Segmentation and Volumetry Measurement Techniques'
to be applied on 3D ultrasound data.
The result of the segmentation stage can be used for severity
assessments of cardiac diseases, cancer treatments, etc., by means
of volume calculation out of the segmented structured. Another
application of the segmentation stage will be labelling and isolation
of regions for a surgery planning system. Such segmentation tools
can be designed as manual (i.e. drawing), semi-automatic or full
automatic
algorithms.
Development of techniques to combine and visualise several
datasets from different image modalities within one basic calculation
step (IMAGE FUSION).
The goal is to provide techniques for the fast handling of different
datasets like 3D Ultrasound, CT, MRI, etc., within one visualisation
step in order to provide new clinical information out of the 'combination'
of these devices. The image 'registration' of one dataset to each
can be performed manually by specifying corresponding points or
semi-automatic, when information
from the devices is included in the registration process. However,
we expect a real clinical added value for surgery and cancer treatment
planning by combining the advantages from different imaging devices.
Implementation and design of a DICOM I/O interface for
3D ultrasound data.
The DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) protocol
for exchanging medical image data has become standard during the
recent years. Since the 3D ultrasound is a rather new tomographic
device compared to CT or x-ray, the ultrasound community has just
started to define the DICOM standards for the 3D-ultrasound modality.
The development includes the literature investigation and probably
visits of DICOM meetings in order to receive (or define) the required
information.
Benefit for the fellows:
The fellows will get insight in one of the most aggressively
growing areas of medical imaging.
The scientific value of the new developments is already given.
Due to the novelty of the area, developments of this type have
not been there before.
In addition, the commercial value is also significant: 3D medical
imaging systems are aggressively gaining market share.
The fellows will learn how to develop software fulfilling the
requirements of the CE norm. This procedure is different than
the quality assurance for non-medical software. Fulfilling the
norm is pre-requirement for commercialising medical software.
