Image-Guided Interventions

Emphasis

Overall emphasis is on the engineering of novel image-guided interventions to improve outcomes of interventional procedures. This can include developments in hardware, software, and methodologies to improve guidance, navigation, visualization, tissue differentiation, and treatment outcomes. In addition, emphasis includes technologies that expand needed procedural access for individuals otherwise excluded by disease characteristics, co-morbidities, and other parameters.

Additional Emphasis

Image-guided interventions may use supporting technologies relevant to other NIBIB-supported program areas, including but not limited to:

• Various imaging technologies
• Molecular Probes and Imaging Agents
• Biosensors and Physiological Detectors
• Image Processing and Visual Perception
• Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning
• Robotics

Examples include image-guided interventions for non-invasive procedures, minimally invasive procedures, open surgery, and radiation treatment such as:

• Guidance for focused ultrasound treatment
• Navigation for minimally invasive needle biopsy
• Intraprocedural delineation of tumor margins
• Intra-operative augmented reality visualization of therapy

Note that image-guided interventions may support operator-directed, non-robotic procedures as well as robotic procedures.

Areas of priority include development of real-time or near real-time novel image-guided technologies, with robust procedural direction or a robust receiver operating characteristic curve. In addition, cost-efficient technologies, appropriate for low resource settings, and/ or applicable to multiple types of interventions are strongly encouraged.