Project Details

Currently, clinical decisions before and within a surgical procedure are mostly determined by the surgeon based on radiological and clinical data. Moreover, execution of surgery in delicate organs require a high level of precision, which can be promoted by improvements in vision and navigation. Current solutions are limited in their accuracy as well as by strongly restricting the surgeon’s field of view. Therefore, the analysis and interpretation of the pathology, indication towards surgery, as well as the surgical plan and execution thereof are highly dependent on the surgeon’s experience and ability.
Planning and execution of spinal and neuro surgery are both governed by high complexity. Within SURGENT we aim at the creation, integration, optimization, and clinical validation of state-of-the-art technologies for surgical skill augmentation. These tools will be embedded into efficient and economical clinical workflows, creating value for the patient and for Zurich as a hub of excellence in medical research and clinical care.
The project is divided into four main thematic work packages addressing preoperative model-based planning and intraoperative holographic surgical navigation. The scientific foundations of the project are image data science for mining content-rich clinical imaging data sets, advanced biophysical modelling and simulation for patient specific surgical planning, augmented reality systems for intraoperative navigation, as well as artificial intelligence driven optimization of the human computer interface based on surgeon’s behavioral analysis.