Institute News

This year’s Challenge on Liver Ultrasound Tracking (CLUST) held at the conference MICCAI 2014 in Boston aimed to assess the performance of algorithms tracking liver features in 2D and 3D ultrasound sequences. Fraunhofer MEVIS contributed three uniquely different algorithms to the challenge:

Fraunhofer MEVIS researcher David Black was awarded a mobility stipend by the German Society for Computer- and Robot-Assisted Surgery (CURAC - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Computer- und Roboterassistierte Chirurgie). He received the stipend to continue his research on the application of auditory display in minimally invasive surgery.

Fraunhofer MEVIS researcher Frank Heckel was awarded with the 2nd place of the MedVis Award 2014 for his work on interactive editing of automatically generated tumor segmentations in CT data for chemo therapy monitoring.

Fraunhofer MEVIS is presenting itself at the “Medizin Innovativ - MedTech Pharma 2014” with an own booth (no. 115) on exhibition level 1 in the NürnbergConvention Center NCC Ost, NürnbergMesse from July 2-3 in Nuremberg.

In honor of Prof. Dr. Bernd Fischer (1957–2013) Fraunhofer MEVIS and the Universität zu Lübeck will hold a memorial symposium on 10 October 2014 from 2.00 pm at the main lecture hall of the University. We want to honor his scientific achievements and commemorate a special person.

In Bremen on Thursday, June 5, 2014, the Fraunhofer MEVIS Advisory Board (Kuratorium) met for the sixth time. The members of the Advisory Board praised the positive developments at Fraunhofer MEVIS and articulated their appreciation and thanks to the institute’s personnel.

Fraunhofer MEVIS researcher Federico von Samson-Himmelstjerna received the Summa Cum Laude Merit Award 2014 at the Joint Annual Meeting of the ISMRM-ESMRMB held from May 10 to 16 in Milan, Italy. He received the prestigious award for his work “Time efficient and robust perfusion measurement using Walsh-reordered time encoded pCASL”.

On June 4, Fraunhofer MEVIS will mark the new leadership by holding a technically oriented open house event for interested visitors.

The first biannual meeting of the EU-funded project CARDIOPROOF is held at Fraunhofer MEVIS in Bremen on April 8. At the meeting the project partners provide an overview of the work carried out in the first six months of the project.

Fraunhofer MEVIS presented current work on neurosurgical planning at kick-off event for the Science Year 2014 in Berlin. Many visitors, among others, German Federal Minister of Research Prof. Johanna Wanka and the President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Prof. Reimund Neugebauer, could interactively explore at an exhibit the anatomy, important functional areas and nerve fiber connections in the human brain.

A W3 professorship in applied mathematics at the Institute of Mathematics and Image Computing at the University of Lübeck has been posted.

Fraunhofer MEVIS is presenting itself in many ways at the 99th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) from December 1-6 in Cicago. This year for the first time also at the shared exhibition stand at the German Pavilion (booth 2965-E) in the Lakeside Center.

Professor Ron Kikinis, Member of the Fraunhofer MEVIS Kuratorium and Head of the Surgical Planning Lab at Harvard Medical School, received the honorary membership of the „Deutschen Gesellschaft für Computer‐ und Roboterassistierte Chirurgie“ (CURAC) in a public session on November 28, 2013.

Fraunhofer MEVIS and Fraunhofer IBMT are presenting the joint MARIUS project (MAgnetic Resonance Imaging Using Ultrasound – systems and processes for multimodal MR imaging) at the MEDICA 2013 trade fair in Düsseldorf (Nov 20-23) at the joint Fraunhofer booth (Hall 10, Booth F05). The concept and an initial demonstrator will be shown there.

The Liver Explorer App, developed by Fraunhofer MEVIS, was presented at the Apple Special Event on October 22, 2013. The app has been optimized in close cooperation with Yokohama City University Hospital in Japan and is being clinically evaluated by surgeon Prof. Itaru Endo and his team.

During the farewell symposium "Disruptive Innovations in Medicine", held by Fraunhofer MEVIS for Professor Heinz-Otto Peitgen on September 4 at the Jacobs University Bremen, Professor Peitgen was honored with the Fraunhofer Medal for his contribution to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

On September 1, 2013, Fraunhofer MEVIS researcher Dr. Christian Hansen will move to the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg. There, he will undertake the role of junior professor for computer-aided surgery at the Institute for Simulation and Graphics in the Department of Computer Science at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg as part of STIMULATE, the new research campus for medical technology.

In deep sorrow, we commemorate our friend and companion. Our thoughts are with his family.

In Bremen on Thursday, June 6, 2013, the Fraunhofer MEVIS Kuratorium, under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Erich R. Reinhardt, met for the fifth time. In the first meeting following the departure of founder and former institute director Prof. Dr. Heinz-Otto Peitgen, members of the Kuratorium praised the continuing positive developments at Fraunhofer MEVIS and articulated their appreciation and thanks to the institute’s personnel.

At the DRK in the Congress Center in Hamburg, Fraunhofer MEVIS will again take part with its own exhibition booth (J 20) at the Forum for Industry (Industrieforum).

Michael Schwenke, scientific researcher at Fraunhofer MEVIS in Bremen, was awarded with a New Investigator Travel Award 2013, at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Thermal Medicine taking place April 17-21, 2013 in Aruba. He received the award, which is sponsored by the Radiation Research Society, for his contribution: "Accounting for patient specific breathing motion in fast numerical HIFU simulations".

Dr. Christian Hansen, scientific researcher at Fraunhofer MEVIS, was awarded with the 2nd prize of the OLB Foundation Science Prize in the category ”Dissertations”. He received the award for his PhD thesis on software assistance for preoperative risk assessment and intraoperative support in liver resection surgery.

Since December 2012 the quality management system of the Fraunhofer MEVIS Project Group Image Registration in Lübeck is certified according to EN ISO 9001 and EN ISO 13485 by DEKRA Certification GmbH.

NeuroQLab, a software assistant developed by Fraunhofer MEVIS for the purpose of neurosurgical planning and quantitative image analysis, has been ranked as the best tool in a clinical study, where the accuracy of nine different tractography algorithms has been examined.

Fraunhofer MEVIS is presenting software assistants for image-based diagnosis and therapy within the Quantitative Imaging Reading Room at the 98th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) taking place from November 25-30 in Chicago.

On November 12, 2012 the collaborative European project IMPACT started its work on the development of an innovative patient-specific approach for Deep Brain Stimulation therapy.

Beginning September 1, 2012, a total of approximately 15M euro from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will fund the OR.NET research and development project.

Christian Hansen, scientific researcher at Fraunhofer MEVIS in Bremen, was awarded with the NDI Best Student Paper Award at the 26th International Congress on Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS 2012) held on June 27 – 30, 2012 in Pisa, Italy.

Jennifer Nitsch was awarded by the "Verein zur Förderung der Hochschule Bremerhaven" with the prize for the best thesis acknowledging her outstanding bachelor thesis in medical engineering at the Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences.

On June 14, 2012, the board of trustees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing MEVIS holds its 4th meeting on campus. Jacobs University has been enjoying a fruitful collaboration on numerous levels with the Bremen based research institution, which is world-leading in developing computer aided, image-based medical diagnosis and therapy. Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Jacobs University’s new president elect, will attend the meeting in his current role as Fraunhofer MEVIS’ director.