Design and comparison of computationally efficient uniaxial stress-strain models of the lung parenchyma for real-time applications.

Real-time clinical applications such as robotic lung surgery, tumor localization, atelectasis diagnosis, tumor motion prediction for radiation therapy of lung cancer, or surgery training are in need of biomechanical models of lungs, not necessarily highly accurate, but with good computational properties. These properties can include one or several of the following: low computation time, low memory resource requirement, a low number of parameters, and ease of parameter identification in real-time. Among the numerous existing models of lung parenchyma, some may be well suited for real-time applications; however, they should be extensively assessed against both accuracy and computational efficiency criteria to make an informed choice depending on the requirements of the application.

Advances in robotic tele-echography services--the OTELO system.

This paper presents some of the recent advances in mobile robotic tele-echography systems. It discussed the feasibility of a reliable remote ultrasound examination using such robotic systems in wireless environments. That is to say, to make use emerging wireless communications to provide a medical expert or consultant the ability to examine a remote patient.

Clinical trials and evaluation of a mobile, robotic tele-ultrasound system.

We have developed a robotic tele-ultrasound system (OTELO) that allows an expert to examine a distant patient by ultrasound. At the expert station, a sonographer controls a virtual probe. Movements are reproduced at the patient station, which may be several kilometres away, on a real probe held by a lightweight robot, which is positioned on the patient by a paramedic.

A tele-operated mobile ultrasound scanner using a light-weight robot.

This paper presents a new tele-operated robotic chain for real-time ultrasound image acquisition and medical diagnosis. This system has been developed in the frame of the Mobile Tele-Echography Using an Ultralight Robot European Project. A light-weight six degrees-of-freedom serial robot, with a remote center of motion, has been specially designed for this application.

The TERESA project: from space research to ground tele-echography.

Ultrasound examinations represent one of the major diagnostic modalities of future healthcare. They are currently used to support medical space research but require a high skilled operator for both probe positioning on the patient's skin and image interpretation. TERESA is a tele-echography project that proposes a solution to bring astronauts and remotely located patients on ground quality ultrasound examinations despite the lack of a specialist at the location of the wanted medical act.