Open Architecture Image-Guided Therapy Software System

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One of the important developments in disease treatment over the past decade has been the development of image-guided procedures. The rise of such systems has also been associated with a contraction of the market with a few companies becoming the dominant players in the field. In such a contracted commercial state, the field does not rapidly expand but rather has to wait for the large corporations see enough potential profit in new applications to innovate. One of the barriers to new innovation is the complexity of the imageguided procedure task, requiring understanding of three dimensional tracking systems, image to physical space registration techniques, display methodologies, graphic techniques, data IO and methods of using intraoperative data to correct preoperative assumptions or to deal with temporal changes. In this proposal we propose to create an open architecture/closed source system for image-guide procedures. Such a system would allow organizations, technology companies and other more agile innovators to prototype new systems without having to expend considerable effort outside of their expertise. It would also provide a common platform allowing consortia of organizations (academic, research and commercial) to coalesce on new applications bringing new therapeutic techniques to the market more quickly.