Image projection technology has been utilized mainly for projection mapping on buildings and in theaters, but the Medical Imaging Projection System (MIPS) may revolutionize the field of medicine. The new surgery assistance system developed by Panasonic in cooperation with Mitaka Kohki Co., Ltd. and Kyoto University tracks changes in the shape and position of organs in real time and directly projects information needed for surgery.
A few years ago, a new technology known as ICG fluorescence imaging techniques was introduced to help navigate while performing liver surgery. However, doctors had to keep looking back and forth between the surgical field and the monitor.
To tackle this problem, Panasonic teamed up with Kyoto University and began developing a surgery assistance system combining its knowledge base in medical cameras and image projection technology. This new system makes infrared light, which is ordinarily invisible to the naked eye, visible in the surgical field for surgeons. Images captured by the infrared camera are processed and projected onto the patient nearly in real-time in the format specified by doctors.
The system has to be extremely vibration proof and easy to move with little force, so that surgeons can project the necessary information onto the surgical field without feeling any stress. To achieve this, Panasonic also collaborated with Mitaka Kohki, a company that specializes in the surgical microscope business.
Their combined efforts resulted in a revolutionary surgical assistance system, Medical Imaging Projection System (MIPS). With MIPS, doctors do not have to look away from the surgical field, and it provides real-time information at all times. MIPS also helps doctors to make incisions precisely along projected lines, which minimizes bleeding. This can help shorten recovery times and hospital stays for patients.
MIPS is the first surgical system* in the world to utilize projection mapping. There is so much potential for its application, and its future could hold great promise.
*As a projector-mounted surgery assist system.
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